November 4, 2001	Sunday	Shaba’an 17, 1422

LONDON, Nov 3: As economic confidence crumbles and job losses mount amid a global downturn, Europeans can take some satisfaction in petrol prices suffering as well, analysts said on Friday.

They said retailers across Europe are cutting pump prices in November, as wholesale gasoline prices continue to slump to over two-year lows with weak demand for oil, analysts said on Friday.

Gasoline barges on the international benchmark Rotterdam market traded down to $167 a ton on Friday, a level not seen since late June 1999, according to Reuters data.

They were around $280 a ton before the September 11, plane attacks on US cities, which triggered a world recession. Continuing military action in Afghanistan has not threatened oil supplies in the Middle East to spike prices.

When we see the crude price drop it’s usual that gasoline falls, said Stephen Brooks of Wood Mackenzie. Prices in the Benelux countries mirror the spot market.

Dutch petrol prices have dropped twice this week and are set to fall another three cents on Saturday, said Peter Regnier from Oil Price Assessments Ltd.

In Germany prices have fallen 12 pfennigs from September 11, with further reductions likely, he said.

A public holiday in some Catholic countries on Thursday meant that price cuts in those areas have been delayed. Belgian prices are expected to drop next Tuesday, Regnier added.

British petrol prices, usually slower to react than the continent, have dropped one penny in some areas this week, after a two pence cut last week, retailers said on Friday.

We’ve come down to 68.9 pence ($1.09) in a number of our forecourts, a spokeswoman from the supermarket Safeway told Reuters.

ChevronTexaco said their prices in some UK areas had already dropped to the same level. Average prices are 69.9 pence, the lowest since April 1999, and six pence down from September 11.

British supermarkets Asda, Sainsbury, Tesco and other oil majors such as Shell, BP and Esso said they will follow prices down, depending on local conditions.

We are seeing some downward movement. We will remain competitive, said a Shell spokeswoman.

Oil analysts said that petrol prices were likely to keep dropping, with benchmark Brent crude dropping to just above $19 a barrel on Friday.

UK petrol prices under 70 pence are very low in relation to recent times. If the wholesale price continues to drop they will come down further, said Brooks.

He said UK price cuts were not always forced by the supermarkets, but that that if one retailer reduced prices others had to follow with stiff competition.

If the supermarkets move there’s no way the majors can keep prices up without losing massive market share.

Average margins in the UK were around four pence a litre, Brooks said. They don’t want to go further down than that, he added.

Only in Italy will consumers not feel much benefit from lower wholesale prices. The government there cancelled out recent price falls by increasing tax on petrol by 50 lira per litre from Thursday.

When prices zoomed up last year, the government cut taxes yesterday they restored them, said Regnier.—Reuters