WHILE further reductions in the price of fuel are welcome, there remain some puzzles surrounding the cost of filling up at the forecourt.

The average price of petrol has fallen by record amounts in the past month, dropping from about 106p for a litre of unleaded last month to below 90p at the weekend.

The supermarket giant Morrisons led the way last Friday with a cut to 89.9p a litre while Total, Tesco and Asda followed suit with other retailers almost certain to do the same.

That is good news for drivers. Quite why prices in the Worcester area remain about 2p a litre higher than in many other parts of the UK, however, has yet to be explained satisfactorily.

Meanwhile, the price gap between petrol and diesel has widened to the point that the fuel efficiency enjoyed by diesel car drivers has been virtually wiped out. On average, diesel is about 15 per cent more expensive than petrol at the pumps.

Yet many motorists have invested in diesel cars to answer the Government’s call to switch to more fuel-efficient vehicles that produce less CO2. Their reward has been a slap in the face every time they fill up. Diesel cars can use up to 20 per cent less fuel than their petrol equivalent. Yet any savings drivers of these vehicles would have expected to make have now disappeared. Again, other than lame excuses about a lack of refining capacity, there has been little in the way of satisfactory explanations from the oil companies.