Fuel prices are roaring back towards the record highs that hammered motorists earlier this year, with wholesale costs surging and diesel already pushing beyond $2.80 a litre across Sydney.
Sydney terminal gate (wholesale) prices for petrol and diesel have jumped sharply over the past fortnight as escalating conflict in the Middle East sends global oil and refined fuel prices soaring again.
The ACCC says wholesale and retail prices are “broadly tracking international prices”, with the latest surge rapidly flowing through to the bowser and threatening another cost-of-living hit for households.
NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said the national average had climbed to 234.6 cents a litre for unleaded and 284.2 cents for diesel by Friday afternoon.
Both have surged almost 40 cents a litre since September 1.
“No doubt about it, these are sharp increases,” Mr Khoury said.
“It’s a reflection, unfortunately, of what has been happening globally with oil prices.
“Families will be really feeling it right now.”
The surge has put fuel back within striking distance of the extraordinary highs reached during the first oil shock of the Iran war in April, when E10 unleaded hit about $2.59 a litre and diesel peaked at around $3.27.
“We’re seeing these prices starting to creep up towards those record highs,” Mr Khoury said.
“We’re not there yet, to be fair. It’s still about 50 cents off for diesel now, but unleaded is about 20 cents off the peaks.”
NSW data on Friday showed median prices of 233.9 cents for unleaded and 279.2 cents for diesel — both up about 20 cents in just a week.
And worse could be to come, with wholesale increases typically taking time to flow fully through to service stations.
The Federal Government continues to collect the full fuel excise of almost 54 cents a litre, with Energy Minister Chris Bowen all but ruling out a return of the temporary tax cut used to provide motorists relief the last time prices were this high.
The scramble for cheaper fuel was already playing out on Sydney streets on Friday.
Along Victoria Road at West Ryde, a fiercely competitive fuel strip with three independent service stations within a kilometre, drivers queued in waves for much of the day to fill up at prices almost 20 cents a litre below the Sydney average.
By Friday evening, the queues were snarling peak-hour traffic.
An attendant at independent APEX Petroleum said motorists had been streaming in all day,
“It has been a crazy day. We’ve had a line of cars all day and now people with jerry cans,” the attendant told The Daily Telegraph.
“Petrol madness is back.”
The NRMA and ACCC rejected suggestions oil companies were exploiting the crisis, with margins tightening as wholesale costs surged.
“Oil company margins have come right in,” Mr Khoury said.
“And just as well, because had they not, we’d be paying even higher prices than we are now.”
Extracted in full from: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/sydney-fuel-prices-surge-towards-record-highs-as-diesel-tops-280-a-litre/news-story/2e15a844d5bd465f7aeee019030fd043
