Asda cuts petrol and diesel prices amid soaring energy costs

One of Britain’s largest supermarket chains has said it will cut the price of petrol and diesel for customers amid soaring energy costs.

Asda announced on Friday that it was cutting the price of unleaded petrol by 5p per litre and diesel by 3p per litre.

This means drivers will pay on average £1.74 for a litre of unleaded and £1.85 for diesel when filling up at Asda’s 323 petrol stations across the UK.

The supermarket has reduced its fuel prices by 9p on unleaded and 7p on diesel since the start of the week, with a cut of 4p per litre a few days ago.

Prices at the pumps reached a record 183.2p for petrol and 188.8p for diesel per litre earlier this year.

The record fuel costs also caused protests on motorways earlier this month, with some urging the Scottish Government to create a fuel price comparison website.

AA fuel price spokesman Luke Bosdet said: “Asda’s price move is impressive, in effect cutting 10p a litre off the UK average price of petrol. That’s potentially a fiver off a tank for those filling up this weekend, compared to the artificially-high prices on too many major retailer forecourts and in too many towns.”

“First, it was a few dozen small independent forecourts showing up the big boys. Now, Asda has called them out with on average a fiver off the cost of a tank of petrol.”

The latest UK pump price averages had petrol at £1.84 per litre on Wednesday.