Petrol Prices

[Tristan]

Now that crude oil prices have halved from 13 months ago it looks like some of the big supermartes are starting to drop their prices - unleaded down to 99.9 pence/litre. Hope it filters around the country and prices drop further.

[mccaugm]

This is Caithness....so the chances are virtually nil...bar possibly Tesco...but they bow down to the dollar and the pound. Am I cynical...maybe?

[pat]

petrol £1.229 a litre.
Would love to be paying even 10p a litre cheaper.

[tonkatojo]

It was on the national new that ASDA had dropped the price of diesel to £1.10 , I might be cynical but thanks to our COUNCILORS bowing down to TESCO refusing an ASDA store planning application can anyone see TESCO reducing their price to match them ? .

[Tristan]

I heard ASDA and Morissons...hopefully it will filter through the rest.

[123]

Pennyland in Thurso down 5p yesterday 107.9

[munchkin]

:)just come from up south all tesco ,asda ,morrisons all 99.9 apart from the tesco in wick whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy:mad:

[tonkatojo]

As i posted in my last reply we don't have an asda and we all know who is to blame for that the local council and so called local businessmen !!!

[stansmith]

dunnets still 4p dearer than tesco yesterday, man in dunnets said tesco are dropping 3p more next week, he seemed to think people didn't like going to tesco though, what made him think this, why has elmtree and lochend(ackergill) had to close, if your saving eg £5 a tank nearly, does anyone care who milks your profits, does anyone pay moreso the local man can rob you.
PS why is pennyland trying to sell up, cos he'll be inished if asda comes

[stansmith]

then you gt anohter 5 p of for buying cheaper shopping with better choice. its cheaper to come from thurso probably. And tesco coop in thurso don't even hold all types of baby milk, why? The services up here are terrible

[hotrod4]

As i posted in my last reply we don't have an asda and we all know who is to blame for that the local council and so called local businessmen !!!

Could this be the same councillors who want to deprive our children of free school meals so they can take even more in expenses? :(

[tonkatojo]

probably is

[Tristan]

Down another 2p.

[bekisman]

Yesterday; the 21st of October we were in Inverness and paid £92.9p a litre for unleaded fuel - well, It was Tesco's and they had their 'spend £50 and get 5p off promotion' and as we were shopping; why not?
Incidentally Morrisons in both Alness and Inverness were 97.9p a litre (unleaded) Shell was 99.9p by Raigmore, and yet the OFT still decides not to investigate the rip-off on the Western Isles (feel sorry for you Pat!).. I know up here in Caithness it's not as bad, but terrible to see on the way down that at Brora both service stations were flogging their unleaded at £1.09.9!
As a thought; ASDA have national prices and would it not have been nice in these times of belt-tightening to have had an ASDA fuel station in Thurso, but refused by short-sighted and dinosaur Councillors? surely they could have seen that if ASDA did not get Pennyland that any other site would have been snapped up by Tesco's? No of course not, it takes a bit more than a parochial view, and a wee bit of lateral thinking, obviously sadly missing! At least it would have been a counter to Tesco and we may have seen some competition..

Isles fuel prices probe ruled out ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7682019.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7682019.stm) ) I've put the text below;

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) will not investigate fuel prices on the Western Isles, according to the local MP who requested the probe.
Nationalist Angus MacNeil accused the OFT of not understanding the "nuts and bolts" of costs in rural Scotland. The MP made a complaint of anti-competitive pricing and distribution practices. According to website petrolprices.com, unleaded petrol costs 121.9p-a-litre and diesel 130p in the isles.
On the mainland, a price war between supermarkets and fuel retailers has seen the price of unleaded petrol drop below £1.

Earlier this year, Mr MacNeil urged the OFT to investigate the fuel supply arrangements between BP and Scottish Fuels.

He claimed that BP bases its wholesale prices for the UK mainland on a two day period on the oil market in Rotterdam, but bases its prices for the Western Isles on an full monthly average.
In a letter to the MP, the OFT said that it "finds it hard to see how using a longer period over which to base prices could amount to being anti-competitive or necessarily act to the detriment of consumers".
The OFT's chief executive John Fingleton adds: "As we understand it, such averaging of market prices over a period of a month, rather than using a single day's spot price will tend to reduce fluctuations in wholesale prices - since a sudden increase (or decrease) in spot prices will only be reflected in wholesale prices gradually over the course of a month, rather than at two days' lag and in full."
The OFT concludes that "as such behaviour is unlikely to amount to an abuse, even if BP were found to be dominant in a relevant market, we are unable to investigate further under the Competition Act".
'Sometimes worry'
Seven years ago the OFT carried out an investigation into the price of petrol and diesel in the Western Isles and found "no reasonable grounds for suspecting an infringement of the Competition Act".
Mr MacNeil said he was "disappointed" by the OFT's latest decision and suggested that it might be due to a lack of resources for the watchdog.
He said: "I believe these contracts are contributing to the lag or the delay in the fuel prices dropping particularly in the islands.
"We are now seeing a 22p-a-litre difference between Stornoway and Inverness. I don't think the OFT fully understand the issue and sometimes worry that the OFT might not be properly funded. "From the answers they have given me, they clearly don't understand the difference between the islands contract and what the average monthly price means."

[pat]

We have dropped 2p - now £1.20.9!!!!!! ONLY OVER 20% DEARER here in Western Isles than rest of UK

In Lewis/Harris there is shortly only going to be one supplier of fuel - Scottish Fuels - this happens on 31st October. Do you think this national supplier is going to change the prices when there is no competition. The fuel ships stop at Scrabster on their way here - I cannot therefore understand why we are so much more expensive than Scrabster

After 31 October do you think our fuel prices will go as low as mainland.

It will soon be cheaper to catch the ferry, drive to Inverness or Dingwall to fill the car than pay the price of fuel here - now we have RET!!!

[bekisman]

Pat; "In Lewis/Harris there is shortly only going to be one supplier of fuel - Scottish Fuels - this happens on 31st October. Do you think this national supplier is going to change the prices when there is no competition.?"

Nope!
I think the comments by Rigerboy (#31 Price of oil thread) says a lot about the ethics and dare I say greed of Scottish Fuels?:
"as of 12 o`clock today (Monday) Scottish fuels 45.4 pence per litre if ordering 1200 litres £545.20
Simpson's oils 42.8 pence per litre if ordering 1200 litres £514.08 (down by 4p a litre in a week),

[percy toboggan]

Unleaded down in Mancunia is now about 99.9p. per litre at Supermarkets.

I pay a bit extra for the 'Super' due to the cleaning agents within.
As the pound has fallen quite markedly against the dollar expect the recent falls in pump prices to be arrested in double quick time. Oil is traded in dollars on the international market.

Incidentally, a promising new find in the North Sea was announced today on the business pages of the 'Mail'

[speedo215]

have noticed tonight that dunnets in wick is down to 101.9p but tesco's is still 103.9p this makes a change seeing it this way round

[over-the-ord]

and with the 5p off deal that's under the £1, hope it continues to go in that direction :roll: