Fuel prices highest they have been in a year, AA says
Wednesday, 17 February 2021
Petrol prices are creeping towards pre-Covid levels, as crude oil prices rise on the back of growing vaccination numbers and rising global economic confidence.
According to price comparison app Gaspy, the price of 91 octane petrol ranged from $1.99 to $2.20 in Auckland. In Wellington, 91 petrol cost between $1.95 and $2.10.
AA Petrolwatch spokesman Mark Stockdale said fuel price hikes were the result of rising global commodity prices.
“Prices are the highest they have been all year,” Stockdale said.
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“In March last year when countries went into lockdown there was a big decrease in the commodity price. That has gradually reversed as confidence went up and economies are recovering,” he said.
Gull general manager Dave Bodger said the average price for 91 octane petrol in December 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic reached New Zealand, was about $2.15 a litre.
On Wednesday, the average price for 91 petrol at Gull was $1.97, slightly lower than pre-Covid but 11 cents higher than the average during the April lockdown.
Infometrics senior economist Brad Olsen said the fuel prices were increasing due to buoyant prices overseas.
Olsen said a combination of optimism around being closer to turning a corner on Covid-19 with vaccine rollouts and restrictions on oil production had put more pressure on supply, raising the price.
On Tuesday, oil prices in the United States closed up on 13-month highs as extreme weather caused some of the biggest refineries in North America to shut down.
Olsen said there was potential for fuel prices to rise further over the next few months.
Stockdale said it would still be some time before the effects of the Fuel Industry Bill to boost competition in the wholesale fuel industry, passed in early August, were felt.
The bill was the Government's response to recommendations to the Commerce Commission's fuel market study.
Most of the recommendations from the commission’s review had 12 to 18 month deadlines from when the bill passed in August 2020, Stockdale said.
But Bodger said a number of Gull petrol stations had started implementing some recommendations.
He said new service stations were displaying the price of premium petrol, which was one of the recommendations by the commission that had a deadline of February 2022.
Motorists who buy premium petrol would have noticed a slightly lower price than before, because there was greater transparency, he said.
The lowest fuel prices around the country according Gaspy:
Auckland
91 octane $1.99 Gull Saleyars Rd, diesel $1.20 Caltex Springs Rd.
Hamilton
91 octane $1.85, diesel $1.20 Pak ‘n Save Mill St
Wellington
91 octane $1.95, diesel $1.19 Caltex Old Hutt Rd
Christchurch
91 octane $1.86, $1.95 Pak ‘n Save Moorhouse