This comment from Nick:
Australia is getting shafted by fuel prices.
If the Aussie dollar did drop crude oil would also very likely drop. If we compare the price of fuel now to what it was a few years ago when crude oil was $140 USD a barrel, the Aussie dollar was around 95 US cents, which mean crude oil would have cost around $146 Aussie dollars.
Now crude oil is around $96 USD per barrel and the Aussie dollar is around $1.05 USD, so crude oil would cost around $92 Aussie dollars per barrel.
That is 60% less than it was when crude oil was $140 per barrel (Fuel companies were reporting record earnings at this time too mind you), yet we are paying the same at the pump, if not more.
From what I can work out we should be paying around 95 cents per litre for fuel. SO WE ARE GETTING SHAFTED.
If anyone has an explanation and can prove me wrong I’d love to hear it coz I’m gettin real pissed off with fuel prices, and you should be too.
Update: UK petrol prices are almost DOUBLE those of Australia at the moment.
https://www.britzinoz.com/petrol-prices-australia-and-uk-april-2016
Nick is right on the money.
Pete
Oil futures reached a peak of US$147.27 on July 11, 2008.
The FX rate of that day was .9592 AUD-USD
Buying 147.270 USD you pay 153.541 AUD (http://www.oanda.com)
The price of petrol quoted at that date was 152.7
Current price of crude oil is about US$96
Buying 96.0000 USD you pay 89.8170 AUD (http://www.oanda.com)
From that we see a major drop in the cost of Crude Oil to Australia, from A$153 down to A$90.
But, based on the cost of crude oil alone, a petrol price would appear to be correct at more like 89 cents, however, it is was actually $1.35 for me today.
However, Australian wholesale prices for petrol and diesel (called Terminal Gate Prices or TGPs) are closely linked to the Singapore prices of petrol and diesel – not to crude oil prices.
Terminal gate prices can be seen at: http://www.aip.com.au/pricing/tgp.htm
The Singapore price of unleaded petrol (MOPS95 Petrol) is the key petrol pricing benchmark for Australia.
All very confusing.
It definitely appears that our petrol prices should be lower, but the only thing that I am happy to see, is our position in the worldwide price of petrol at the pump. We are consistently one of the cheapest. I can only assume that the Crude Oil price does not reflect accurately on the retail price in any country.
All these figures are taken from the petrol prices of the main 29 countries, for the September quarter of each year, at http://www.ret.gov.au:
2004
Australia 4th cheapest
UK 28th (2nd to the most expensive out of 29)
USA 1st cheapest
2005
Australia 4th cheapest
UK 25th out of 29
USA 2nd cheapest
2006
Australia 4th cheapest
UK 25th out of 29
USA 2nd cheapest
2008
Australia 4th cheapest
UK 20th out of 29
USA 2nd cheapest
2009
Australia 4th cheapest
UK 19th out of 29
USA 2nd cheapest
2010
Australia 4th cheapest
UK 21st out of 29
USA 2nd cheapest