DERBY is edging ever closer to a situation where the price of a litre of unleaded petrol in the city will cost less than £1.
As is the case across the rest of the country, the tumbling price of fuel at the pumps has shown no sign of abating in Derby.
And if the prices continue to fall at their current rate then Derby could see a litre of fuel costing less than £1 within a matter of months, possibly weeks.
Three weeks ago, according to comparison website PetrolPrices.com, the cheapest place for a litre of unleaded in the city was at Asda's Spondon store, when the price was 110.7p.
Today, that store remains the cheapest place to buy unleaded, along with the supermarket giant's other city store at Sinfin – but now the price stands at 105.7p, which means it has fallen by 5p.
And both stores are also the cheapest places to buy a litre of diesel. Three weeks ago, Asda's Spondon store was selling diesel at 118.7p a litre – now it is 112.7p, a fall of 6p.
It is all a far cry to March last year when campaigners were calling on Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne to cut 3p off a litre of fuel, to help the economic recovery.
That month, the cheapest price for unleaded fuel in Derbyshire stood at 136.9p.
Derby motorists are certainly noticing the difference.
Amber Stafford, of Spondon, said: "It now costs me about £15 less to fill up my van now, which is a really big saving."
Even those who drive more eco-friendly cars are seeing a difference in their pocket.
Scott Gillespie, of Littleover, said: "I drive a Smart car – and even I notice the difference when filling up."
Last month, some experts, including economist Melanie Powell, senior lecturer at the University of Derby's Business School, believed that the cost of fuel would continue to fall – and that appears to be happening.
But she cautioned that any crisis in the Middle East could result in the prices rising again.
Motoring organisation the RAC maintains that petrol could soon dip below £1 a litre.
RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: "The price of a barrel of oil looks set to continue to fall as more oil is produced than the world needs.
"If the pound remains strong and the oil price keeps moving down we are hopeful it will not be too long before one of the leading fuel retailers decides to be the first to offer petrol for £1 a litre – a pump price last seen in late May 2009."
The reason why petrol is getting cheaper is because global oil prices have fallen sharply.
Until the middle of last year, world oil prices had been fairly stable, hovering at around $110 (£68) a barrel.
But since then prices have almost halved, with Brent crude oil this week falling below $50 a barrel for the first time since May 2009.
Weak demand in many countries due to poor economic growth, coupled with surging US production, are the two main reasons why the price of crude has fallen so dramatically.
At the same time, the oil cartel Opec (a group of oil producing countries that control a large percentage of the world's oil supply) is refusing to prop up prices by cutting production.
The key is whether the falls in the cost of crude is passed on at the pumps.
But Mike Coupe, chief executive of Sainsbury's, this week predicted that with oil prices continuing to fall petrol will "almost certainly" follow.
