Oil giants join supermarkets in cutting petrol prices

THE PRICE of petrol dropped as low as 97.9p a litre today as Britain's leading fuel retailers made further reductions.

Morrisons was first to make cuts, knocking 2p off the price of unleaded petrol and diesel per litre to 97.9p and 109.9p respectively.

Supermarkets Asda and Tesco, along with energy giants Total, BP and Shell, all followed suit.

The Petrol Retailers' Association expects further cuts.

Asda announced the same prices as Morrisons for its fuel from tomorrow. Its trading director, Darren Blackhurst, said: "We expect oil prices to fluctuate in the coming weeks and will continue to pass on cost savings to customers whenever and wherever possible."

Later Tesco, which sparked the price war this month as the cost of oil plummeted, said it became "the first retailer to offer petrol at prices last seen more than a year ago".

A spokesman for Shell said its petrol had dropped 18p per litre and diesel almost 20p per litre since July, with today's reductions bringing petrol to 97.9p per litre across much of the company's network.