Blog Marco

Looks like we'll be paying a premium for petrol these coming weeks, months... years (?)

Hopefully not. Just to think that just last year we were paying about 90c... and on a good day plus a petrol voucher (discount of 4c) get unleaded petrol at around 85c if you were lucky.

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Petrol soars to $1.39 in Sydney
September 6, 2005 - 4:40PM

Petrol prices have hit a high of $1.39 a litre in Sydney and motorists are being warned to expect prices to continue rising.

Average prices in Sydney stood at $1.29 a litre today, up from an average of $1.25 last week, according to the Australian Institute of Petroleum and petrol tracking website Motormouth.

The state's most expensive petrol was in inner-city Redfern where standard unleaded was selling at $1.39 a litre, more than ten cents above last week's highest price of $1.28.

Motorists found the lowest price tag of $1.20 a litre in the south-west suburb of Liverpool.

But NSW Service Stations Association chief executive Ron Bowden warned motorists to brace for a hike, saying the top prices would be felt across the state as early as tomorrow.

"I understand that the Melbourne market moved today and it's currently up around 139.9 cents a litre," Mr Bowden said.

"The Sydney market appears not to have moved so far."

However, Sydney would "absolutely" follow Melbourne to the 139.9 cents a litre mark which was expected to be seen at multiple petrol stations this week, he said.

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AdvertisementOil companies were responsible for the latest rises in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico, he said.

"Crude oil prices have actually gone down, but gasoline prices have shot up because of the shutdown of the refining capacity over there, and that's reflected world prices," Mr Bowden said.

"The oil companies are just passing that on to Australian motorists even though their costs haven't gone up."

He called on the federal government to step in and regulate the industry or motorists would face further hikes.

"Motorists are being ripped off by oil companies and it's not warranted in any way, shape or form.

"I would have thought that that's a role for the Australian government to protect its own people."

AAP

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