ACCC warns motorists still not gaining full benefits of low oil prices   

Date
    February 15, 2016
    Sydney Morning Herald



Motorists paid "unreasonably high" prices for petrol in the second half of last year, prompting the competition watchdog to demand answers from the country's major petrol retailers.   

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has found that motorists are still not benefiting fully at the petrol bowser from the plunge in global oil prices over the past year due to high refiner and retail margins.   

The average price in the five largest cities – Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth – was 124.4¢ per litre in the three months to December, which was 8.8¢ lower than the previous quarter and 11.4¢ lower than in the June quarter.

While prices had dipped, the regulator said they had not fallen as much as might have been expected given the plunge in crude oil prices. Brent crude oil prices in December were at their lowest level in more than 11 years.


ACCC chairman Rod Sims said the consumer watchdog believed retail prices were unreasonably high in the second half of last year and early this month wrote to the major petrol retailers seeking an explanation for the high retail margins.

"I expect to receive their responses shortly," he said.

Gross indicative retail differences (GIRDs) are indicative of the margins gained by petrol retailers on the sale of fuel, and give an indication of overall retail profits.

The regulator's report for the September quarter showed that quarterly average petrol GIRDs in the country's five largest cities – 11.8¢ per litre – were at their highest level since it began monitoring petrol prices in 2002.

Its latest report for December quarter found they increased further, by 0.6¢ 12.4¢ per litre.

Mr Sims said the difference between crude oil prices and international refined petrol prices were high last year at about $US16 a barrel, compared with an annual average of about $US8 a barrel over the past two decades.

"These high refiner margins are outside Australian control," he said.

"While international refined petrol prices are strongly influenced by the price of crude oil, they are also determined by their own global supply and demand conditions. As global demand for petrol was relatively strong in 2015, prices remained high relative to crude oil prices."

Kiron22 wrote on Feb 15^th, 2016 at 11:35am:


About $1.16 here in mid-north coast NSW.

polite_gandalf wrote on Feb 15^th, 2016 at 11:51am:


Yes!
But, the ACCC & the major Political Party's must be aware of what's been happening AND NONE OF THEM HAS EVEN SPOKEN UP, LET ALONE TAKEN ANY REAL ACTION!
I wonder WHY?

Quote:


But why would they? Its still cheaper than it was 6 months ago - people will be content with that. Most of them don't have time to follow international oil prices and work out how much they "should" be paying.