3 charts that suggest petrol prices are likely to push up again for Australian motorists

Australian petrol prices are likely to increase even further in the weeks ahead.

These three charts explain why.

The first shows that front-month Brent crude futures jumped above $80 last week, the first time that’s been seen since November 2014.

And that’s flowed through to Singapore gasoline prices, where Australia sources most of its petrol from.

According to Commsec, the Singapore gasoline price surged by 5.2% to $US91.70 a barrel last week. The increase in Australian dollar terms was even larger at 5.4%.

And with Singapore gasoline prices surging higher, that’s now filtering through to wholesale petrol prices in Australia.

The national average wholesale price for unleaded petrol in Australia rose by 2.5 cents to 135.2 cents per litre last week.

While the average pump price for unleaded petrol across Australia fell last week, Ryan Felsman, Senior Economist at Commsec, doesn’t expect that trend to last.

“Aussie drivers continue to approach petrol stations with trepidation,” he says. “Pump prices are above $1.40 across large swathes of the country and likely to stay there.”

Felsman says the surge in Sinagpore gasoline prices also points to higher pump prices arriving in the coming weeks.

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