With the dark clouds of cost increases and carbon tax uncertainties hovering over the industry, transport operators do have a silver lining of some sort to look to – diesel prices.
The national average cost of the fuel has slipped through the $A1.50 mark this month and has been making steady downward progress over the past three months.
By Rob McKay | June 28, 2012
With the dark clouds of cost increases and carbon tax uncertainties hovering over the industry, transport operators do have a silver lining of some sort to look to – diesel prices.
The national average cost of the fuel has slipped through the $A1.50 mark this month and has been making steady downward progress over the past three months.
According to Australian Institute of Petroleum data, the average weekly diesel pump price was about $A1.54 on April 8 but had reached $A1.48 by June 24.
The Singapore price for gasoil, the international price on which the Australian price is based, has fallen from $A124 on May 29 to $A109 this week before ticking up slightly.
An oil industry source says the earlier higher Singapore price may have been affected by a refinery outage a few months ago.
A BP spokesman tells ATN the price fall is driven in part by an oil price at the mercy of a confluence of northern hemisphere economic concerns, most notably continuing European economic doldrums and uncertainty over the future of the euro, weak growth in the US and slower growth in China.
This has been in action since April, he says, with both economic and political risk factors “built in” by traders.
Indeed, Tapis crude oil has fallen from $1.16 a barrel to 94 cents a barrel since May 29, while the West Texas Intermediate crude price has fallen from $US114 a barrel in April last year to $US79 this month.
According to London’s Financial Times, northern hemisphere trucking companies are among big energy consumers that are looking for further oil-price falls following the 30 percent fall in the price of Brent crude, the type most traded, to $US91, an 18-month low.
This has come as Saudi Arabia has driven its oil production up by about the same percentage.
The Wall Street Journal reports expectations of expectations of oil prices locked in a range between $US50 and $US80 a barrel
but with some suggesting it might fall as low as $US30.
