Image: Petrol prices around Sydney. Image courtesy Fuel Check
Crisis talks over petrol prices and supply are being held in Sydney, as the war in the Middle East expands further and impacts oil exports around the world.
The US and Israel’s attack on Iran has upended global air travel, disrupted oil exports from the region and sent fuel prices rising across the world. Petrol prices rose nearly 50 cents per litre across Australia’s five largest cities from 20 February to 11 March, now averaging close to 220 cents, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has found.
Perth saw the largest petrol price hike, now paying nearly 60 cents per litre more, while Sydney saw the biggest diesel price jump, up nearly 68 cent
The meeting is chaired by NSW Energy Minister Penny Sharpe will include representatives from transport, agriculture, mining and consumer groups. They will be discussing fuel supply and putting into place a plan in case the fuel crisis escalates. The Fuel Check real-time price monitoring website will also be checked for compliance, after reports of service stations being fined for reporting the wrong prices for fuel to the monitoring site.
There have also been reports of some drivers stockpiling fuel and selling it online at inflated prices, which has been labelled “un-Australian” by Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen. NSW Premier Chris Minns has also warned motorists not to buy more than they need.
NewsWire recently reported on the only service station in the NSW Snowy Mountains town of Batlow running completely out of fuel.
The Batlow service station, about 400km southwest of Sydney, put up signs alerting customers it was “sold out”. Batlow service station worker Sam Hughes said the company had decided the petrol price was fluctuating too much to purchase more fuel.
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