Some Kiwi drivers can rejoice as Waitomo Petroleum service stations are dropping fuel prices to $2 a litre for unleaded 91 petrol for a week.
Since July motorists have suffered high petrol prices but from today until midday on Friday, November 23, they can drop in at Waitomo fuel stops and fill up with cut-price gas.
The petrol company will be selling fuel at its outlets - all in the North Island - for the following prices: Unleaded 91 at $1.999 a litre, Premium 95 at $2.129 a litre and Diesel at $1.399 a litre.
However, in Auckland there is an additional price due to the regional fuel tax leaving fuel prices $2.099 per litre for unleaded 91, $2.229 per litre for premium 95 and $1.499 per litre for diesel.
This is still cheaper than Gull prices spotted across West Auckland yesterday, where the petrol stations were selling 91 for $2.11 per litre.
A Gull spokesman, Rohan Mehta, said that the petrol station sometimes had sporadic price drops to stay competitive across certain sites and in certain regions.
"Yesterday was one such day. So, yes the drop was across quite a few sites. Our pricing has returned to normal since this morning," Mehta said.
In response to the Waitomo promotion Mehta explained: "We believe we have offered good respite over the last few days with competitive prices and rest assured if we were to alter our pricing further, people would notice that at the pumps."
It's the first time since August that petrol prices have been seen lower than $2 per litre for 91, and comes after prices spiked to record highs in October.
The Automobile Association's Petrolwatch spokesman Mark Stockdale has described such specials as fantastic for motorists.
"I think if you would have asked just a month ago, where we were paying nearly $2.50 a litre for petrol, if they could have imagined that prices would fall back under $2. They would have said no.
"Yet here we are, we have a retailer that's here offering petrol for under $2 a litre."
Stockdale said that even with petrol companies discounting, the price of petrol has fallen and done so quickly.
"There has been another price drop across New Zealand. Yesterday, the national price of 91 octane is $2.15 a litre. Diesel has also fallen 4 cents.
"That's the 12th price cut that we have had in a row in the past month."
He also said that "commodity prices globally are continuing to fall and on top of that the New Zealand exchange rate is improving, so we are getting a double benefit".
"Compared to a month ago, motorists will certainly be feeling a lot more relief seeing the prices today and considering how far they have fallen and how fast which they might continue to."
Waitomo group managing director Jimmy Ormsby said conditions were right for this kind of promotion.
"Kiwi motorists deserve some relief. We're running this promotion until midday Friday next week. No matter what, our customers will get a competitive Waitomo price, putting money back in Kiwis' pockets ahead of Christmas.
"We also wanted to celebrate the start of construction at our new Papamoa and Rotorua fuel stops."
Waitomo's low-price fuel offering has led to greater price competition in the areas it operates.
New fuel stops Papamoa and Rotorua will open in December, and a six-pump site will open early next year in Wellington, where fuel prices are among the highest in the North Island.
It's part of the company's ambitious plans to continue expanding and disrupting New Zealand's retail fuel market.
"We saw that the Wellington region deserved a fairer deal and greater competition, so we're stoked that we're delivering that," says Ormsby.
"But there are many other places in New Zealand, especially in the South Island, that are still missing out. That's not fair and it's not the Kiwi way."
"We're a 100 percent Kiwi-owned and operated, third generation family business, and we believe Kiwis deserve the best deal we can deliver them, which is our Waitomo price."
