A survey of petrol prices in the city via price comparison app Gaspy yesterday revealed a wide disparity at the pump, with the cost per litre ranging from $1.84 (Addington) to $2.04 (Hornby).
Rebounding crude oil prices, the weather-related shut down of refineries in the United States, Covid-19 vaccine roll-outs and improving economic confidence have combined to impact on motorists.
Automobile Association’s general manager of motoring affairs, Mike Noon, said it was difficult to gauge when prices would stabilise.
“I think there’s still a long way to go. Demand is still significantly off around the world compared to where it was before Covid. We’ve still got lots of countries in lock down,” he said.
“You’d expect there maybe some increase or pressure on fuel prices as economies start to recover and vaccination programmes roll-out around the world.
“We have also seen sometimes around Easter the US does its fuel stock take to see how much fuel it has in storage and that sometimes cause a little rumble in pricing.”
Global fuel prices bounced back late last year after dropping significantly in the first four months of 2020 as the global pandemic took hold.
Last February crude oil was $US50 a barrel, down from $US61 at the start of the year. A barrel of Brent crude oil was quoted at $US65 a barrel on OilPrice.com yesterday.
While prices are trending upwards, Noon said competition ensured discounts were now a fixture in the marketplace.
“The pricing in New Zealand is now very varied. There are no single prices you look at to say ‘Gosh, here’s a national price’,” he said.
“We have a lot of other players in the market now. We have the Nelson Petroleum’s (NPD) the Allied’s, the Waitomo’s and the Gull’s,” he said.
“Then you have a lot of deals on different cards and different schemes. If you want to get a fuel discount you can, which never used to be the case.”
