Facts Demolish Oil Company Price Manipulation Claims
"Despite constant accusations of oil company price manipulation, the facts show that petrol prices fell in every town and city measured by the independent Informed Sources petrol price monitoring service," the Executive Director of the Australian Institute of Petroleum, Mr Bryan Nye, said today.
"Simplistic claims of oil company price manipulation do not stand up to factual analysis.
"The fact is that petrol prices move in line with a range of factors including international oil and product prices, the exchange rate and local supply and demand conditions.
"The falling prices in January reflect a strengthening of the exchange rate and changes in domestic demand, together with lower crude oil prices towards the end of December which feed into wholesale petrol prices."
The independent Informed Sources study, funded by AIP, shows the following price movements in capital cities for January:
|
City
|
Change from December (cpl) |
Ave. January price (cpl) |
|---|---|---|
| Sydney |
-7.9 |
87.5 |
| Melbourne |
-6.8 |
87.7 |
| Canberra |
-3.6 |
93.1 |
| Brisbane |
-5.5 |
75.9 (includes 8.35 cpl State subsidy) |
| Adelaide |
-7.2 |
85.1 |
| Perth |
-6.4 |
84.9 |
| Hobart |
-5.4 |
91.5 |
| Darwin |
-5.3 |
97.3 |
Mr Nye said Australia continued to have the lowest pre-tax petrol prices in the OECD, due to intense competition from imports and amongst Australia's eight local refineries.
"The Australian industry is ultra-competitive and January's independent price data confirms that fact," Mr Nye said.
The full list of January petrol prices is available at www.informedsources.com.au/petrol