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Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
National
Nick Bielby

Petrol prices should continue to fall in Hunter, NRMA says

Ongoing falling petrol prices across the Hunter should continue through the Easter period, NRMA says, otherwise the region would be bucking a global trend.

The average price of unleaded fuel was about 112c/l in Newcastle on Thursday.

NRMA spokesperson Peter Khoury said fewer vehicles on the road this long-weekend - given a stay home direction from the NSW government amid the coronavirus pandemic - should not affect the cost of fuel either way.

He said lower demand should not impact the price at the pump.

"It shouldn't make a difference because the fact is what determines petrol prices in Australia should be world oil prices and the Aussie dollar," he said.

"If Newcastle's prices go up over the long-weekend it would be bucking an international trend and it would probably the only place on earth where that was happening.

"We should not see prices go up at all, we should see prices continue to fall. And even though people might be looking at $1.12 on average right now and saying 'wow, it's cheap', the reality is it should get a lot cheaper."

The average petrol price in Newcastle has been falling since the week ending March 8 - more than 20c/l in the past five weeks.

"If anything, we should continue to see [price drops] speed up because the falls in world oil prices have been so significant and wholesale prices have plummeted in Australia," Mr Khoury said.

"If anything we should continue to see those prices falling."

According to NRMA's latest weekly fuel report, Newcastle had an average unleaded price of 115c/l for the week ending April 5, down 3.3c/l from the previous week.

During the same period, Muswellbrook had a price drop of 6.5c/l to 121c/l, Singleton fell 4.9c/l to 119.3c/l, Maitland decreased 2.5c/l to 118.1c/l and the Central Coast went down by 3.3c/l to 114.5c/l.

Tweed Heads South, on the north coast, had the state's cheapest average unleaded price at 105.6c/l, while Tumut, in the Riverina region, had the most expensive at 141.9c/l.

Sydney's average price for the week ending April 5 was 114.7c/l - down by 7.6c/l.

"Global oil prices continued to fall at a slower rate last week due to the coronavirus pandemic," the NRMA report said.

"Singapore gasoline price hit a 21-year low of US$19.00 a barrel (lowest since June 15 1999) mid last week before recovering slightly in Friday trading."

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