Iran war: Petrol prices top $3 in Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch
Sunday, 15 March 2026
91 octane petrol prices crept past $3 at gas stations in main centres over the weekend, with concerns they will only increase as turmoil continues to rage on in the Middle East.
Fuel price monitoring app Gaspy recorded 91 octane prices as high as 317.9 cents a litre at Z service stations across the capital as of Sunday afternoon.
The most expensive at 317.9 cents was Z in Alicetown, Lower Hutt, while 10 others had prices recorded at 315.9 cents a litre.
Taxi driver Ramie Bithyou, 48, was filling up his car at the BP on the corner of Taranaki and Wakefield St where prices were 315.9 cents a litre.
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Filling up a tank had gone from below $100 to now $150. “It’s very bad,” he said.
Already, business had been quiet and Bithyou was concerned high petrol prices would keep more people home. “It makes it very hard for us.”
Kaia Holborow, 23, regretted not filling up earlier, but had no choice now because she travelled from Newtown to Lower Hutt for work.
“I’m not looking forward to that,” she said. But she was glad she was no longer a student as it would not be manageable.
Jackson Keightley, 23, was worried prices would continue to climb but was waiting until pay day to fill up his car.
He questioned why prices were already climbing so quickly when the country still had reserves bought before the Iran war began.
The Post reported New Zealand’s five bulk fuel importers – Z, BP, Mobil, Gull and Timaru Oil Services – had enough petrol in the country to meet normal demand for 33 days and diesel for 27 days, as of a week ago.
There were more supplies en-route but not yet within the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone. In the face of supply concerns about diesel, Transporting NZ head Dom Kalasih has blamed panic buying for rising high prices.
In New Zealand, Commerce Commission commissioner Bryan Chapple said fuel prices were being actively monitored and so far no unjustified increases had been found.
The growing number of petrol stations selling petrol at $3 a litre, before discounts, became noticeable on Friday morning.
Even prices at Waitomo – known to have cheaper prices sat at 297.9 cents a litre on Hutt Rd, according to Gaspy.
In Christchurch, the average price was $3.02 a litre on Sunday.
The West Coast was home to the single most expensive petrol station in the South Island, according to one Gaspy user who reported seeing 330.9 cents a litre in Harihari on Saturday. In Fox Glacier and Franz Josef/Waiau the price was 309.9.
Meanwhile, RNZ reported several Gull petrol stations in Auckland running dry for the second time in three days.
Prices hadn’t quite hit $3 in Hamilton, according to Gaspy. But smaller centres in the Waikato region like Morrinsville and Horotiu also saw prices above $3.