Adelaide’s shortening petrol cycle is a blessing and a curse for motorists who can now make a tank last until the next low point in the wildly swinging price war.
The RAA has warned three consecutive shortened cycles — when Adelaide unleaded prices are spiked up to 40c/L by retailers — has delivered the city the third worst unleaded petrol prices in the nation, after having the cheapest for most of 2018.
Adelaide’s average monthly price for February was 133c/L, cheaper only than Canberra 142c/L and Hobart 141c/L, a reversal since December last year when our prices were 6c/L cheaper than the next capital, Perth, where motorists were paying 130c/L.
“Adelaide has one of the most active and competitive markets in Australia and we can still be happy about that, but for six months the market has bounced around considerably,’’ RAA spokesman Mark Borlace said.
“Hopefully the current high prices are an aberration because in the long term we have been better off through most of 2018.’’
Mr Borlace said on the plus side for motorists the price cycle had changed from being around 22 days-long to just over two weeks.
“If the cycle from top to bottom is more like two to two-and-a-half weeks, it can mean in a fuel efficient car you are getting closer to being able to make a tank last until the cheaper point in the cycle,” he said.
“So if you can ride through the troughs and make the fuel last until the low price point in a short cycle, you can benefit.’’
Current high prices are partly to blame, Mr Borlace said, on the terminal gate price paid by retailers which has jumped from 117c/L in January to 130c/L in Adelaide and the second worst in the nation, Darwin, where the price is 134c/L.
Extracted from Adelaide Now