21 January 2023 , 00:01
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The cost of petrol has fallen to the lowest price the UK has seen since February last year and for diesel since last March, according to the AA.
The average UK petrol price was 148.59p a litre on Wednesday, while diesel was down to 170.71p. These are falls of 4.4p and 5.0p a litre respectively compared to just before Christmas.
On Monday, the motor insurance collected the average pump price from all major brand retailers, it also looked at the disparities between prices across different parts of the UK.
This analysis revealed which drivers were the "lucky ones" in regard to the cost of filling up their tank.
Of course, the below figures from the AA only take into account the supermarkets and mainstream petrol stations - it doesn't include any independent fuel stations.
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The AA said they were seeing supermarkets raging a "pump price superstore turf war" in areas where there were multiple stores in close proximity (AFP via Getty Images)Pump prices on Monday, January 16
Average petrol price per litre
- Asda - 144.50p
- BP - 151.17p
- Esso - 150.15p
- Jet - 147.57p
- Morrisons - 145.54p
- Murco - 148.13p
- Sainsbury's - 146.41p
- Shell - 148.54p
- Tesco - 146.72p
- Texaco - 148.71p
Average diesel price per litre:
- Asda - 166.43p
- BP - 173.90p
- Esso - 172.79p
- Jet - 170.02p
- Morrisons - 167.82p
- Murco - 171.48p
- Sainsbury's - 168.68p
- Shell - 169.78p
- Tesco - 169.07p
- Texaco - 171.16
The AA's analysis also revealed that there were "major price gaps" between different areas of the UK.
The most obvious gap was the cost of diesel in Northern Ireland which averages at 10p cheaper than London and the South East of England.
In Wales, the average price difference with southern England was around 6p a litre.
The cost of petrol has fallen to the lowest price the UK has seen since February last year (AFP via Getty Images)The AA also noted that at a more local level and "largely restricted" to certain areas of the UK that even bigger price gap anomalies have emerged.
Last weekend, supermarket petrol in Ashton-under-Lyne was as much as 13p a litre cheaper than 10 miles up the road in Rochdale, which is a saving of around £7.15 a tank.
In the neighbouring town, the cheapest supermarket petrol was 145.7p.
The AA noted that they were seeing supermarkets raging a "pump price superstore turf war" in areas where there were multiple different stores in close proximity with fuel prices dropping dramatically as they fought for customers.
Luke Bosdet, the AA’s spokesman on road fuel prices said: “Discovering that supermarket petrol or diesel is £5 to £7 a tank more expensive than just 10 miles down the road is guaranteed to leave drivers livid.
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"It just doesn’t make sense, particularly when other essentials like bread, milk and eggs are pretty much the same price wherever you go,”
"Say, for instance, a supermarket lures you into their store with a voucher offering £6 off a £60 shopping bill.
"To find out that that supermarket clawed back all that saving, and perhaps £1 on top of that, at the pump compared to a superstore in a neighbouring town will quite rightly lead to a howl of protest.
The AA says that supermarkets can "get away" with this because the fuel price transparency that the Competition and Markets Authority recommended to the Government in October doesn’t yet exist in England, Wales and Scotland.
It does however exist in Northern Ireland where the AA's analysis has proven to be offering significantly lower petrol and diesel costs.