- Motorists warned to fill up quickly as fuel prices undergo massive surges
- Shell Coles Express in Queensland has raised fuel prices by 30 cents overnight
- NRMA media spokesman said Sydney fuel stations are following the price trend
- Melbourne is also undergoing a price surge similar to Sydney and Brisbane
Motorists across the country are being urged to fill up immediately with fuel prices expected to surge after Shell Coles Express raised its unleaded prices by a whopping 30 cents overnight.
New South Wales and Queensland motorists woke to the massive surge, leaving fuel at 167.9 cents a litre – 30 cents more than then the price of unleaded fuel on Wednesday.
Motorists in Sydney and Melbourne have been urged to fill up now with Shell Coles Express attempting to set the price benchmark for the upcoming fuel cycle.
General manager of price monitoring service fuelTRAC, Geoff Trotter, savaged Shell Coles Express’s move, The Courier Mail reported.
‘This is probably the most blatant example of Shell Coles Express trying to lead the Brisbane market up to 167.9 cents a litre,’ he told the publication.
‘It’s a new era all right. We’ve never seen prices go so high so quickly and with record margins.’
The national average for fuel prices in the week ending May 5 was 145.6 cents a litre while the highest national average over the past six months was 150.0 cents a litre.
RACQ spokeswoman Lucinda Ross said it wasn’t uncommon for a company to make a play at setting a new price benchmark.
‘That’s higher than we expected. It’s too early to tell if that’s where the new high will sit, but we would urge motorists not to delay filling up because prices are on the way up, and when they hike they can leap by 20 or 30 cents a litre,’ she said.
Sydney is also expected to be hit with the price surge in the coming days, NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said.
‘We’ve seen a number of sites reaching 167.9 cents a litre overnight so we are seeing a similar trend here (as in Queensland),’ he explained.
‘It happens at the end of the fuel cycle when companies try to jump up the prices.’
Mr Khoury advises Sydney motorists to fill up now before the prices continue to rise.
He also advised Melbourne motorists to fill up because fuel prices in the city are trending upwards.
‘It’s at 156.9 cents a litre in Melbourne but it will get worse, it was 142.0 cents a litre last Friday in Melbourne so it is trending upwards for sure,’ Mr Khoury said.
Mr Khoury said it was a common practice in the fuel industry for prices to rise at the end of a fuel cycle.
Fuel cycles are different depending on which part of the country you are in but Thursday is the 23rd day of the current fuel cycle in Sydney. The previous fuel cycle lasted 28 days.
According to the NRMA website the average regular unleaded price in Sydney for the current cycle should range between 138 cents per litre and 156 cents per litre.
Extracted from Dailymail