Petrol prices officially hit record-highs this week and there’s little hope relief is on the way.
But NRMA spokesperson Peter Khoury said when compared to other capital cities, Canberra is still by no means the dearest place to fill up. The average in Canberra is 171.7 cents per litre, compared to Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne at 180 and Perth at 182 cents a litre.
“I guess what I’m saying is it’s bad everywhere. We’re more worried about the fact that it’s not going to go down anytime soon,” said Mr Khoury.
“There was some hope that we would see some relief heading our way, now that we’re in November with a potential increase in production levels, but that’s just not come to be,” he said.
For a brief period on Friday, Mogas 95 was under $100 a barrel on the expectation that OPEC would increase production. However, output has not increased and prices quickly returned to above $100. Hope now rests in greater production in December.
“How much higher [are prices] going to go? We’re hoping not that much, but it’s such a volatile market right now, it’s really difficult to predict. What we do know is that there is nothing that we’re seeing which gives us any sort of confidence that we might start to see some relief,” he said.
Mr Khoury again reiterated his stance on the ACT’s absence of real-time data regarding petrol pricing.
He said a service such as the NRMA’s NSW Fuel Check would have made it easier for consumers to shop around and find the best price during a period of price volatility.