Fuel Prices

If you have a smart phone look at the Fuel Map app.
Also look at a similar question on the Caravaners Forum

JJ - No-one tracks Nullarbor fuel prices, the roadhouses out there are a law unto themselves, and their prices are not posted anywhere.
The best you can do, is find someone who has been through recently and who recorded the prices.

In the comments on the webpage below, reply number 25 from "Alan O", has the list of diesel prices from late Dec 2015 to early Jan 2016.
The price difference between petrol and diesel is now only 2-3 cents on average in the country.

The W.A. Govt operates Fuel Watch, which makes the fuel retailers list their next day prices from 2:00PM each day - and makes them hold those prices for 24 hrs from 6:00AM to 6:00AM.

Fuel Watch covers country areas, but only out to Kalgoorlie and Norseman in the East.

Don't buy fuel from Border Village, they are fuel rorters. Drive the few kms extra into Eucla if you're heading West, or stop at Eucla rather than BV when heading East, and buy your fuel 20c per L cheaper.

Remember to take plenty of water for drinking - the water quality across the Nullarbor is terrible and in short supply all the way across.

Fuel & Accommodation prices across the Nullarbor - TripAdvisor

Fuel Watch - W.A.

Cheers, Ron.

Gidday

It's a common query but given the WA fuel prices have moved up and down around Australia in the last few weeks how would anybody know what is likely to be happening on the Eyre Highway?

I budgeted on 30c a litre more for diesel than I was paying in Perth at the time (last August). Sometimes I was surprised when it was a few cents cheaper.

SA metro prices were cheaper than WA at the time so the differential was greater on the way home

Cheers

JJ
IMHO, some people seem to worry too much about fuel prices across the Nullarbor.
Norseman (Caltex and BP) and Penong (Caltex) both usually have reasonable prices and either fill up before or try to one coming across to fill right up.
Depending on consumption and tank capacity, just try to avoid the two or so that are usually much higher, often Border Village and Madura.
When it comes down to it, if you have to fill up at a slightly higher price once or twice, it might cost you $5 to 8 more each time, which in the great scheme of things, is not much - one or two cups of coffee in a trip that is probably costing many thousands of dollars. Certainly not worth stressing about.
The fuel app will give you a good indication as prices only stay there for about 2 to 3 days max without refreshing.
Cheers
Andrew

Wikicamps aps, gives u a free fuel app Australia wide which is updated by users

The phone apps 'Fuel Map' and 'Petrol Spy' are very good but both require updating by fuel buyers.
They can only ever be as good as the last entered data as there is no longer an official source of prices.

Petrol Spy does not currently let you manually enter a newly discovered fuel outlet whereas Fuel Map does.
Fuel Map does not seem to so well supported by the public. I find more price data available on Petrol Spy.

Suggest you install both and update them as much as you can.

Retail fuel prices should be investigated by the ACCC - there's some devious behind-the-scenes manipulation going on to ensure motorists are paying far more than they should.
The average price of crude oil today is around US$30 a barrel. At its peak a few years ago, oil was US$110 a barrel.

The average profit per litre at the servo has historically been 2c litre. It's currently 20c litre.
In Perth, the wholesale price of ULP to servos is currently $1.02. Diesel is only $1.05 wholesale.
We should be seeing massive price drops in fuel and big drops in costs of everything as well, because fuel is a substantial cost component of everything.

When I was an earthmoving contractor, fuel made up between 25% and 30% of my business operating costs.
When we had the oil price surge in 1980/1981, diesel went from 10c litre to 40c litre in a period of 18 mths - and coupled with the worst drought in 80 yrs, the double whammy nearly broke me by the end of 1983.
Now we have the massive reverse in oil pricing, I haven't seen bowser fuel prices drop to a quarter of what they were.

However, having said that - the problem the local refineries face, is owning high-cost and ancient refineries (Kwinana is the newest, and it was built in 1954!) and high local refining labour costs.

All the massive new refineries in Asia (Singapore in particular) can refine petrol and diesel at substantially less cost than local refineries - so that's where the local refiners are in a bind.

The oil companies could shut all the local refineries, and just import refined fuel direct, and sell it for less, and make even bigger profits.

However, I suspect the Govt and the unions would go ballistic if that happened, as we would then have no refining capability in Australia, and be totally dependent on overseas refineries.

Regardless, there's room for the local oil companies to give us cheaper fuel at present.
I suspect they are holding the prices up to near the level of massive profit they could make, on importing overseas fuel on a bulk basis, with no local refining.

Cheers, Ron.

Diesel in Mildura currently $140.9 / litre so your lucky.

Yeah I think they'll need a bigger truck for the money