Recent, sharp drops in crude oil prices are not being passed on to customers. According to the AA’s Director for Corporate Affairs, Conor Faughnan, the average price of petrol this month is the same as it was back in May of this year.
This is so despite a sharp drop of 20pc in crude oil prices over the summer.
Motorists should be paying far less for our petrol at the pumps now, especially given the fact that petrol was spared an excise increase in last week’s budget. Petrol retailers have been accused of profiting at the expense of motorists by failing to pass on the sharp fall in international prices.
There has also been a call to the European Commission to probe practices and pricing strategies within petrol retailers.
Spokesman for the Irish Petrol Retailers Association David Blevings admitted that wholesale crude oil prices have fallen, and that there is plenty of supply, but also said that the process ‘takes time’ and that prices at the pumps should fall ‘by the end of the year.’
He also indicated that the dollar remains strong against the euro, and that this is a factor to consider when passing wholesale price drops down to the pumps.
Mr. Blevings added that ‘it is the price of refined petroleum that determines the price at the pump, not the price of wholesale crude oil.’