Petrol

[DJHawkes]

I have spent £135.00 on petrol during the month of Feb., on Feb 1st I paid 130.0p per litre (tesco), on 7 feb I paid 132.9 per litre (same tesco) 11th feb 134.9 per litre (same tesco) 16th feb 135.9pl same tesco, 19 feb 131.9 p. litre,(texaco) 20the feb 138.9 (same texaco!) 27 feb 136.9 (tes co)

What the heck goes on with these places! Tesco constantly change price, up never down, they've just given me a voucher for 5p off per litre after spending £50 in store, that means i will be paying 131.9 per litre if i use it today, ip more a litre than tesco were charging on feb 1st!

How on earth does it get to confusing?

[Buenchico]

Crude oil prices change daily, so the refineries change the price that they sell to Tesco (and others) at every day. So it's hardly surprising that petrol retailers review their forecourt prices daily.

[aelmpvw]

they're not so quick on their feet when the price drops are they

[gingejbee]

What's so confusing? The prices are increasing every where, but you will get promotional offers and price matching with competitors. Same as food in this, and other, supermarkets.

[DJHawkes]

it sounds quite inefficient to me, I know fuel stations get deliveries most days but do the large depots get daily deliveries? must do to need to pass on the price changes.

[DTCwordfan]

Course they do Dotty, many in the UK by pipeline (for example the one in NE London that had the fire). Others are fed by coastal tankers. There's a way of sending different products up or down the line......and before anyone jumps on it, in a multi-branded depot, the additives for the particular company brand are put in at the loading arm as it is these that make Shell and Chevron what they are and others less performing, particularly in engine cleanliness.

[DTCwordfan]

Lets say you start with premium petrol, you run your load through the line and then you switch to ordinary grade - you start feeding that in. Sure there is a small amount of transitory petrol that isn't premium and is above normal, we call that the "cut" and downgrade it to the lower quality fuel.

You then follow next with some kero-heating oil, downgrading the cut into the diesel, and from that work back into different diesels, always downgrading the cut...... the trick is to minimise the cut as much as possible.

[DJHawkes]

why do they bother it's all the same

[DTCwordfan]

It isn't because of the additives put into the fuel. In the USA. Shell are claiming 5% economy over the competition and I know that the measured gap is >10% - why they don't launch that over here plain beats me as it really is a differentiation against buying supermarket crud. The same happens with diesel, different additives used etc. You can actually send your own tailored grade up a pipeline if you wish, but bear in mind that the volume needs to be such to keep the cost of those cuts down.

[Hopkirk]

I see big differences in prices between Tesco stores as I drive around.

Basically they charge what they think they can get away with in that area.

Unfortunately we pay for crude oil in dollars, and as the pound is sliding at the moment there are more increases imminent.

[Buenchico]

>>>they're not so quick on their feet when the price drops are they

Wrong!!!
(It's yet another urban myth).

The snappily titled "Pattern asymmetry in the pass-through of input price shocks in the UK road fuels sector", published only last month by the OFT, found that "Overall, the empirical analysis conducted by the OFT suggests hat, on the basis of the data available, rocket and feather pricing is not a distinctive feature of the UK markets for road fuels"
http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/markets-work/oft1475-annexe-e

[Buenchico]

>>>I see big differences in prices between Tesco stores as I drive around. Basically they charge what they think they can get away with in that area.

True, but the prime duty of any business of any company is to maximise shareholders' profits. Why shouldn't they? (The Tesco 4 miles from me in one direction is always 6p per litre dearer than the one 10 miles in the other direction because the nearer one doesn't have any other supermarket filling stations in the area).

Asda is the only supermarket to offer the same (usually low) price across the country. It's able to do that partly through going over to 'pay at pump' only, with no cash payments possible. (The recently-built Asda in Bury St Edmunds doesn't have any cashiers; you can only pay by card at the pumps). But I bet that some people will start moaning about that as well!

[arwyn]

petrolprices.com is helpfull, just type in your postcode and it tells you the cheapest in your area.

[gingejbee]

The statement that Asda has the same low price across the country (above) isn't QUITE true. They do have a capped maximum price but will go lower if a nearby competitor forces the issue by undercutting Asdas capped price.