ASDA 'tries to lead oil industry pricing'

Supermarket ASDA has claimed that it attempts to pre-empt price cuts by other oil industry operators when it comes to reducing the cost of its petrol.

Over the past three weeks, the retailer has made cuts totalling 3p to its petrol prices, with diesel also coming down.

This compares with the average fall in unleaded prices of less than a penny across oil industry outlets nationwide, reported in Department of Energy and Climate Change figures.

"When it comes to petrol pricing we keep it simple - we try to be the first to drop the cost, wherever you live," says ASDA commercial director Phil Briggs.

A further step taken by ASDA is to fix the price across its entire network of 180 petrol stations.

This means that, going into the bank holiday weekend, prices will not exceed 113.9p for diesel and 110.9p for unleaded at any of its outlets nationwide.