Fuel prices in the Gwendraeth Valley's Drefach petrol station have dipped to a staggering 169.9 a litre, making it one of the cheapest fuel providers in South West Wales.

The latest prices were announced yesterday, which meant a reduction from the previous cost of 175.9p a litre. And their diesel is enjoying a similar plunge dropping to a healthy 183.9p a litre.

This means that the Drefach prices are falling in line with the directive currently being sent out by the UK’s leading motoring organisations who are accusing the country’s main supermarkets of not adopting the drop in wholesale fuel prices to customers.

The RAC and the AA, which are the two largest roadside assistance specialists, have said that while wholesale petrol and diesel prices have declined sharply in the past seven weeks, supermarkets had only passed on a small proportion of the drop while earning larger-than-normal profit margins from motorists.

The organisations said retailers were stoking inflation, which climbed to a 40-year high of 9.4 per cent in June, because of their outsized role in UK fuel markets, where they account for almost half of all petrol and diesel sales by volume. Supermarkets have historically been among the cheapest fuel retailers in the country but the RAC are urging people not to assume that they’re still the cheapest option for filling up.

“When fuel prices don’t come down at the supermarkets there is less incentive for smaller independent stations to quickly pass on drops in the wholesale price,” commented the RAC. “We think it’s a scandal and every driver has the right to be very aggrieved.”

The recent decline in wholesale prices has come as Brent crude prices have dropped by about 11 per cent since early June, while refining margins — another key component of wholesale costs — have cooled.