Petrol Prices

[74_XB_Ute]

For those that are in SE QLD.....I was in Toowoomba today and noticed their petrol prices are around 114.9 (non discounted). One servo was even 107.9 (for E10 discounted). So why is it that on the same day here in Brisbane we are paying 124 to 128???? Anyone have an insight as to why this is so?

[nstg8a]

cash grab.

dont see how else they could justify fuel being cheaper having been transported 2 hours from brisbane.

[74_XB_Ute]

Originally Posted by nstg8a

cash grab.

dont see how else they could justify fuel being cheaper having been transported 2 hours from brisbane.

Exactly what I was thinking. Two hour drive up a big friggin range and their averaging 10c/L cheaper than Brissy. Dont make sense to me.

[Jim Goose]

Petrol went up today in Townsville to... $1.26 from $1.18

[TheInterceptor]

Yeh, somthing like that happens down here in south syd. I drive up the road to the closest servo, $1.24 for garbage E10 on a good day. I drive a few more k's over a bridge and i pay $1.18 for plain old 91 on a good day. Both before discounts.

[74_XB_Ute]

Used to be known for quite a while in Brissy that it is cheap Tuesday for Fuel....but lately it seem Friday is the day....also when I did fill up at Caltex... 91 wasnt even on the pump....only choice was E10, 95 or 98.

[TheInterceptor]

Well the ones i compared are both Caltex, but the expensive one is cheapest on Tuesday's like usual, sometimes Wednesday's. The cheaper one i find is cheapest on Thursday's, sometimes goes cheaper earlier on Wednesday arvo.
The cheaper one is nextdoor to Shell, so that may explain the lower cpl.

[Coyote mk3]

Originally Posted by 74_XB_Ute

Used to be known for quite a while in Brissy that it is cheap Tuesday for Fuel....but lately it seem Friday is the day....also when I did fill up at Caltex... 91 wasnt even on the pump....only choice was E10, 95 or 98.

Yep, I have noticed that Tuesday is just about the most expensive day now.
I find Saturday to be the cheapest.

Paid $1.43 for 98 yesterday

[Mr Hardware]

What's petrol?
Oh yeah that really expensive stuff that makes your oil turn black!

[74_XB_Ute]

so how does deisel become relatively stable in price? what makes regular fuel jump all over the bloody place. I know the petrol companies feed us duff about the reasons why. Usually a jump in oil prices lets em have open slather but never works in the opposite direction when oil comes down. So today at $85 a barrel we still seem to pay the same price for fuel as when it was $130 a barrel.

[Mr Hardware]

That's US$ a barrel 74xbute - in AU$ it'd be comparable.

[74_XB_Ute]

Yep....so in Nov07 when it was US$140 a barrel then it dropped to US$55 a barrel in Sep08 did we see a 60 odd percent change in the price of fuel at the pump? Despite the US$ v AU$ I didnt notice it!

[Mr Hardware]

74 XB ute my records indicate that in November 2007 the price of ULP was $1.30/L and in September 2008 was 91cpl.

So here lets go:
November 2007 - Oil US$140 - Exchange rate .90 - Converts to AU$155 -Petrol is $1.30L.
September 2008 - Oil US$55 - Exchange rate .68 - Converts to AU$80 - Petrol is 91cpl.

So the real price of oil per barrel for Aus only dropped by 48%. In that time, the cost of petrol only dropped by 31%.
But a litre of petrol is not only based on the cost of oil. In a litre of petrol there is 38c of govt excise and GST and shipping and other associated costs. So in one litre of petrol about 50c is fixed always. So then the difference between the two litre prices go like this:
Nov07 - $1.30L -minus 50cpl fixed costs - actual oil cost about 80cpl.
Sep08 - 91cpl - minus 50cpl fixed costs - actual oil cost about 41cpl.

So our drop in oil price per barrel is 48% and our drop in the refined product at the bowser is - you guessed it - 48%.

[74_XB_Ute]

so with oil at US$85 a barrell today and an exchange rate of AU$0.96 today the price at the pump is around 1.26 to 1.28 here is brissy.
Nov07 - Oil US$140 - Exchange 0.9 - Converts to AU$155 - Petrol is 1.30/L
Nov10 - Oil US$85 - Exchange 0.96 - Converts to AU$88.5 - Petrol is 1.26/L
Nov07 - $1.30 - minus 50cpl - actual oil cost - 80cpl
Nov10 - $1.26 - Minus 50cpl - Actual oil cost - 76cpl
So 42% drop in oil price
But price at the pump dropped by 3%

Is this right?

[74_XB_Ute]

or is it the difference between the actual oil price?

[tankclare]

At our local servo I paid 136.9 for normal unleaded which is about normal for the fuel here. I always run premium in the XE and that is usually around 146.9-150.9

Nearly jizzed my pants when I seen unleaded for 116.9 in Sydney on sunday. Sucks living in the country lol

On a side note a few weeks back when I was in newcastle I paid 106.9 for unleaded. Went to the same servo for a drink 2 hours later and it was 126.9. I was like WTF! lucky I was there earlier.

[last fairlane]

we are told bs that when China uses X amount of oil the price goes up here
but when China uses X amount less 20% in their summer our costs still go up
and when its cold in Europe the price goes up
when its summer in Europe the price still goes up
when the ACCC investigated the oil co colusion tactics
that Alan fellow who was in charge at the time said and I quote
if I thought the oil cos were in collusion
I would come down on them like a tonne of bricks unquote
yeah right
also this gets mentioned "over seas buys a lot of oil so the price goes up"
what happened to supply and demand when you sell a heap of stuff the costs come down not go up
we get screwed either way
Thanks John

[Mr Hardware]

Originally Posted by 74_XB_Ute

So 42% drop in oil price
But price at the pump dropped by 3%

Is this right?

I do believe it is
But since then we've lost our 8cpl subsidy - so now the fixed costs are 58cpl.

But yes, I haven't really paid attention to the cost of fuel these days - i'm not putting 500L of fuel a month through my car anymore like i used to be, so i've gotten a bit slack. I used to even visit here daily!

But yes, that doesn't make sense. Go back to Mid 2006, Oil price per barrel was about $70 and the AU$ was sitting at about US73c, making about AU$88/barrel like it is currently. The petrol price then was about $1.09 by my records, i think. Why it's not that now I don't rightly know tbh.

One other thing to mention, as much as I can explain most petrol price fluctuations, I cannot explain the weekly price cycle. As far as I'm concerned it's an absolute scam. Why can't petrol stay the same price all fortnight like LPG and diesel? I don't know. I try to disprove anyone who says that they're getting had or ripped off or shafted, but I actually do believe the weekly price cycle is a scam.

[Scott]

Originally Posted by Mr Hardware

blah blah blah

Good post - if I hadn't been so frivolous with my reps today I would have given you some. Will catch you up tomorrow.

[74_XB_Ute]

Originally Posted by Mr Hardware

One other thing to mention, as much as I can explain most petrol price fluctuations, I cannot explain the weekly price cycle. As far as I'm concerned it's an absolute scam.

I agree. I mean i still cant figure out why Woolworths fuel can be 10c/L cheaper 200km inland on the same day. And not just them...the whole town is 10c/L cheaper!

[midnightXR6]

What thats cheap.

Working on the current exchange rate i currently pay £1.24 per litre or 99ron fuel.

Conversion right now shows that making it AUD$ 2.01

Std 95 unleaded think its te same as your 95 is only £1.19 again converted is AUD$ 1.93.

And as for 91 we dont have such a low ron rated fuel here.

Just as well i work in the oil and gas industry.

[Mr Hardware]

Originally Posted by GTP006

Good post - if I hadn't been so frivolous with my reps today I would have given you some. Will catch you up tomorrow.

Thanks mate, appreciate it.

[zeuss000]

What are our Kiwi friends on the forum paying for your fuel these days? Does the price yoyo over there like it does here? or are you all on LPG or CNG?
Cheers
Ed

[Mr Hardware]

Lots of people are on diseasel over there zeuss because of two factors- lower taxation rates on the stuff like euroland (makes no sense because there's more oil in a litre of diesel than in a litre of petrol) and a plethora of jap imports of which there's a higher incidence of diesel motors.

[aussie muscle]

it sucks even more that we drill our own oil, but have to sell it at Singapore base price. damn oil barons...

[Mr Hardware]

aussie muscle, we only drill a small percentage of our own oil (something like 8% or 11%?) and the reason we sell it at the international rate is that if we sold it cheaper, overseas companies would buy it all on us anyway. This is what happened to LPG and that's why it's now sold at the international contract price.

[KYSBF]

Originally Posted by zeuss000

What are our Kiwi friends on the forum paying for your fuel these days? Does the price yoyo over there like it does here? or are you all on LPG or CNG?
Cheers
Ed

Just came back from NZ, anywhere from 1.80 to 1.95/l.

[MO]

Don't forget that our oil/petrol price at the pump is based on the Tapas rate(Singapore) NOT the American rate per barrell.

[mrbaxr6t]

there are limits to how much more above 91 95 can be sold for and limits to how much more they can charge for 98 over 95 this is ironclad fact, and is for the most part ignored

[blockhead83]

Originally Posted by MO

Don't forget that our oil/petrol price at the pump is based on the Tapas rate(Singapore) NOT the American rate per barrell.

Right on,
My understanding was that because Australia is a net importer of fuel. (use more than we make). Our terminal pricing has more to do with demand in Asia as a whole than our actual demand in Australia.

Ie. If you can import a given fuel for 90 cpl from singapore/where ever then our locally produced fuel will be sold for 88 cpl to a terminal. because if we charged more than fuel would be entirely imported (if there was enough shipping capacity).

Unfortunately this works both ways, if there is a high demand for a given fuel in the reigon and it costs 120cpl to import to australia due to that demand then locally made stuff will be sold for 118cpl (to a terminal).

So even if we were using entirely our own local crude (Bass straight stuff which incidently is more expensive than Tapas as it is very sweet) fuel is still sold based on the singapore price.

There has recently been a huge refinery started up in Vietnam that is pretty much there to make diesel for the local market, in making diesel you can't help making gasoline. so (if they get themselves sorted out) the asian market will be very full of gasoline, which should drive the gasoline price down (supply/demand).

Good news at the petrol pump not good news for the australian fuels manufacturing industry.

As far as retail and 15cpl swings in one day go I have no idea what drives it,

But if I had a milk bar and the one next door was selling a litre of milk for $5 and making $4 per litre and I was selling at $2 and making $1 per litre and I was pretty sure that i could move roughly the same volume as i am now if i matched their price I'd go to $5. Then if they dropped their price back to $2 and I was seeing a big drop in volume I'd be back to $2.

At least that's my theory on retail.

Anyway (flame suit on) Petrol is still the cheapest thing you can buy by the litre at a retail outlet. (coke,bottled water etc etc are all more expensive than $1.20 per litre)