Who is selling cheaper petrol and how much cheaper is it?
Several supermarket chains have trimmed about one penny a litre off the price of unleaded petrol. Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco are all selling unleaded for about 78p a litre while the north of England chain Morrisons has cut its prices to 75.8p a litre. What about the big oil companies? Most of the service stations operated by the big oil companies, such as Esso, Shell and BP, are holding out against lower pump prices. Their price changes are determined as much by local competition considerations as by international crude prices. If one of the companies makes a move, the others are likely to follow. Why are the petrol price cuts so small when crude oil prices have fallen so steeply? Crude oil is only one factor influencing the retail price of petrol. In the UK, the crude oil and the cost of refining it into petrol accounts for less than 20% of the final cost of a litre at the pump. The remainder is mostly taken up by fuel duty and valued added tax (VAT). Esso claims that a retailer make
