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An oil company says it deserves more positive coverage in the media after petrol prices fell back under $2 for the first time in nearly a year.
BP says it is a "good news story" for consumers and claims it has been leading the way for Kiwi motorists nationwide.
BP's External Affairs manager Jonty Mills told TV ONE's Breakfast this morning: "There's a bit of scepticism out there and it's hard for us to get a good rap in the media. However I think we've shown, we've dropped the price six times consecutively in the last month and a half. BP have led four of those."
One of its rivals, Gull, further cut prices for regular 91 Octane petrol to $1.959 today.
Mills said continuing falls in the price of crude oil and refined oil, which NZ companies import from Asian refineries and the local refinery at Marsden Point, have allowed the price cuts, including yesterday's three-cent drop.
"It's a continued decline in the international product prices. That's really being driven by, at the moment, what's going on in Europe around the Greek political and economic situation," he said.
"There's a lot of uncertainty in the market at the moment but what we've seen over the last six weeks is a continued downward trend of those international product prices."
Mills said BP does pass on price cuts to motorists as soon as it can and pointed out that yesterday's fall is the sixth consecutive drop since May.
He said a lot of the price components - exchanges rates, shipping costs and Government taxes - are outside of the oil companies' control, but he would not specify exactly how they calculate the pump price.
AA Petrol Watch, which monitors petrol prices, called for a two cent cut on April 20 then upped that to four cents by May 2 and 6 cents two weeks later.
The first pump price drop, of four cents, came on May 21 but Mills said the "perception" that petrol companies are quick to hike and slow to cut is not reality.
"I'm not aware of which data that the AA use. There's a lot of interpretations of the data that's available. We use day-to-day real time data in terms of those figures and we pass on those benefits as quickly as we can".
Other companies were quick to follow BP lead yesterday and cut prices below the $2 mark for a litre of unleaded 91.
Gull claims it has led the market down and Graham Stirk, its retail manager, said: "Gull strives to offer the best value to Kiwi motorists. Falling oil prices and a steady exchange rate have enabled us to pass on these savings at the pump."