Caltex service stations follow BP in price rises.
Several Caltex service stations have joined their BP counterparts in hiking their unleaded petrol prices today, despite paying less for fuel themselves.
As predicted yesterday in WAtoday.com.au, Perth motorists are now paying more than they should. The average price of unleaded in the metropolitan area today is 99.2 cents a litre, 0.6c higher than yesterday.
But 26 BP and Caltex stations are selling unleaded petrol for $1.099 today. Nine BP stations hiked their prices yesterday, despite both the Singapore price - the benchmark for Australian prices - and wholesale prices falling. Caltex joins BP today, raising its prices 13.4c a litre.
Yesterday's Perth wholesale price was 95.6c a litre, almost one cent cheaper than on New Year's Day. BP has said it needed to lift its retail margins, which it claimed had fallen to "unsustainable" levels.
It mirrors what occurred just before Christmas when BP hiked its prices in a similar situation of falling Singapore and wholesale prices. That led to a prediction in WAtoday.com.au that Perth motorists would soon pay as BP, the price leader in the state due to its Kwinana refinery, had its move followed by other retailers.
The average price, which had fallen for more than two months, climbed again despite falling in other state capitals. It reached a peak of about $1.045 a litre on December 23 but has been falling since, until today.
University of NSW associate professor Frank Zumbo, who predicted both price rises in WAtoday.com.au, said with Caltex joining in, it was clear the FuelWatch scheme was allowing oil companies to signal one another on price hikes, and further bad news was in store.
"With petrol prices what goes up tends to stay up," he said.
But RAC manager of vehicle policy Mike Upton said petrol markets "have always operated this way".
"The industry has always had this information available to them anyway, even before FuelWatch. Now they have to wait 24 hours before putting up prices," he said.
During December's price rise Caltex followed BP but then prices came down as other retailers did not follow suit.
However, Mr Upton described the latest price rises as "a bit cynical", and today's average price was a fairer reflection of where retail prices should be.
"Their job is to push the envelope. Ours is to push back," he said.
He was also critical of BP's argument that its retail margins were unsustainable.
"Retail margins fluctuate all the time. There are times when they are low, and times when margins are high. If you've got negative margins that's not sustainable but there are also plenty of times when margins are above that."
An Australian Competition and Consumer Commission inquiry into unleaded petrol, released last month, concluded the fuel industry nationally was "fundamentally competitive".
But FuelWatch has previously criticised BP and Caltex for trying to trigger price cycles.
More than 200 metropolitan service stations are selling unleaded today for less than the average price. The cheapest are United South Lake and Peak Neerabup, at 95.5c a litre.
