KEY POINTS:
Oil company minnow Gull dropped its petrol and diesel prices by a further one cent this morning.
It follows a four cent drop by Gull, BP, Mobil and Shell yesterday.
Gull's New Zealand regional manager David Bodger said the company had been watching the international crude oil market.
Oil prices dropped by a further US$4 overnight, adding to a decline of more than 10 per cent from last week's record on worries over US demand and easing political tensions between Iran and the West over its nuclear programme.
"We just like helping people out and there was an opportunity to pass that on and we traditionally sit a cent below the major oil companies anyway," Mr Bodger said.
Gull is now selling 91 Octane for 213.9 cents and diesel for 186.9.
He declined to comment on whether Gull's move could influence the company's larger competitors.
"We haven't seen what's come through for crude come all the way through to refined prices yet," Mr Bodger said.
Meanwhile, Automobile Association spokesman Mark Stockdale said further relief for motorists could be on the way.
He said the drop in crude oil was good news but there could be a week's wait while the price filters through to the refined prices and on to the pump.
"There is always a lag of a few days before we would expect to see that show at the pump. It's a very encouraging trend," Mr Stockdale said.
He said yesterday's petrol price drop of four cents came on the back of drops earlier in the week.
Petrol companies had passed on the reductions sooner than usual, he said.
"The oil companies have passed that on virtually overnight and they've done that because they have seen even though the refined price has not dropped much yet, the crude price has continued to fall. They've anticipated that will lead to drop to a price in refined," Mr Stockdale said.
He said oil companies had passed on all of the reduction and more.
"In all fairness we would expect another reduction," Mr Stockdale said.
The fall in international oil prices marks the biggest three-day loss in the market in percentage terms since December 2004, a boon to world stock markets that have been hard-hit in recent months by mounting fears over inflation and the health of the US banking sector.
US crude fell US$4 to US$130.60 a barrel at 1:20 p.m. EDT (6.20am NZT), adding to more than US$10 of losses over the previous two days that have brought prices further from Friday's all-time peak of US$147.27 a barrel. London Brent crude fell US$1.94 to US$133.87 a barrel.
Despite the losses, oil prices remain up about 30 per cent this year, and up more than sixfold since 2002, driven in part by surging demand from developing economies in Asia and worries that world production growth won't be able to keep pace.
- NZHERALD STAFF & AP
