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Price of Fuel

Hi everyone,
Firstly, let me wish everyone a happy and healthy 2009.
I wish to get some feedback (especially from anyone in the know) why we are currently paying around A$1.00 per litre for fuel?
The scenario: Around 6 years ago, a barrell of oil was trading for about US$35.00 and the A$ to US$ exchange rate was about $0.70c and we were paying about A$0.70c per litre. If the equation changed to the following: a barrell of oil was trading at about US$145.00 and the A$ to US$ was at about $0.95 and we were paying about A$1.50 cents per litre. We are now back to the begining with a barrell of oil trading for about US$45.00 and the A$ to US$ exchange rate is about $0.70c, then how come our fuel price has not fallen to $0.70 cents per litre? We are also back to the weekend spikes in fuel prices. Is there anybody out there who has worked in an area where they have been involved in setting the price of fuel to be paid by the public?
I suspect that the fuel companies have not reduced their prices nearly in line with their cost reduction.
Any comments would be greatly appreciated.
Regards
Keith

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Permalink Reply by ff123 on January 27, 2009 at 9:00pm

Was wondering when the pollies would jump up and down about this one
today petrol 1:10 barrel of oil about 40
before XMAS petrol 90 cents a barrel of oil about 40

Can't see why it is suddenly 20 cents/litre more expensive

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Permalink Reply by moonbuggy on February 13, 2009 at 7:37am

Hey Keith, happy (belated) new year to you too.

I hear what you're saying because although oil prices have tanked I'm still paying 1.20 a litre!

I remember reading an article about this not that long ago and managed to find it again now:

Want to know how petrol is priced? Here’s the answer

It's a bit convoluted, but what I found interesting was this sentence:

"For metropolitan prices, there is a weekly discounting cycle that has historically ranged up to 12c from floor to ceiling according to the Australian Institute of Petroleum. In major cities the low price point typically occurs earlier in the week."