Sydney's massive margins while oil price drops to 18-year low

Oil prices around the world have plummeted to 18-year lows but you wouldn’t know it if you were filling up in Sydney on April Fool’s Day, with average prices still a jaw-dropping 30 cents per litre (CPL) higher than the wholesale price.

 Singapore Mogas – Australia’s international benchmark price – has continued to free-fall to below $US20 a barrel for the first time since 2002, while the Terminal Gate Price in Sydney is now 86.4 CPL for regular unleaded.

Despite these global factors pointing to what should be the lowest prices in almost a generation the average price remains a stubborn 119.5 CPL. The gap between the cheapest and most expensive service stations is now a record 70 CPL – or $38.50 on a standard fuel tank.

Prices in Sydney continue to fall at an alarmingly low rate at less than one-and-a-half cents per day. Brisbane (122.1 CPL), Melbourne (129.7 CPL) and Canberra (133.8 CPL) have all been subjected to exorbitant prices at the bowser.

NRMA spokesperson Peter Khoury said the average price in Sydney had fallen a miserly 22 CPL in 14 days.

“It is insufferably frustrating for the NRMA to see our Members and the community still paying 119.5 cents per litre for regular unleaded when the average price in Adelaide is 89.6 cents per litre and has been for some time,” Mr Khoury said.

“We are in the middle of a global pandemic and our community – and the economy – is facing challenges not seen in our nation’s history. These snail-paced falls in prices across much of the nation are hurting families and businesses. It might well be April Fool’s Day but nobody is laughing.”

While the average remains stubbornly high, the my mynrma app does pleasingly show a number of service stations passing on falling prices to their customers with the cheapest price in Sydney currently 87.9 CPL at service stations in Fairfield and Villawood.

“The bottom 10 per cent of service stations in Sydney are selling petrol between 87.9 and 102.9 cents per litre so clearly nobody should be paying anywhere near 157.9,” Mr Khoury said.

“Get on the my mynrma app and find the cheapest price in your local community because now more than ever families shouldn’t be paying one cent more for petrol than they need to at the bowser.”

Currently almost 36 per cent of regular unleaded sites in Sydney are selling between 125.9 cpl and 127.9 cpl.