King’s Heath station sells petrol for £1 a litre as oil prices crash due to coronavirus crisis

A petrol station in Birmingham is believed to have become the first retailer in Britain to offer fuel for less than £1 per litre after oil prices crashed earlier this month.

The Murco garage on the A435 near Kings Heath on Tuesday (March 24) cut the price of unleaded to 99.7p in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

It follows cuts of up to 12p-a-litre announced by Asda and Morrisons on Monday, which had seen unleaded drop as low as 104p at the respective supermarket forecourts.

With oil prices crashing over the last fortnight, fuel commentators have been calling for petrol to drop below the £1-a-litre ceiling in recent days.

The Birmingham filling station has become the first to answer these calls this week, undercutting rivals in a bit to draw increased custom at a time when many Britons are on lockdown due to the coronavirus.

It’s believed to be the first time a UK filling station has sold petrol for less than £1-a-litre for five years.

An employer at the garage said it was likely to stay at least as low as that for a while.

He said: “The pandemic is affecting business because it is limited the number of people who are coming out.”