Petrol Price Raise!!

FOUR major companies raised petrol prices today by 5 cents a litre since July last year.

Shell,BP,Caltex and Mobile decided to increase their price products due to weakening New Zealand.

Shell spokeswoman Jackie Maitland said supply had been constrained with the refinery in Whangarei closed for temporary maintenance.

She also warned that the 4 cent drop in the New Zealand dollar this week had not helped prices going into the future.

Mobil spokesperson Alan Bailey said the company had also increased its prices.

He said the rise followed a "significant increase" in the regional market price for petrol since the beginning of the year in US dollars against a weakening of the NZ dollar.

BP spokesperson Diana Stretch said the company had also raised prices.

Caltex spokeswoman Caroline Bland said the price rise was due to the weakening New Zealand dollar.

She said pricing staff had told her that last week's average for the dollar was around 59.45 cents against the US dollar but this week it had gone down to 57.45 cents.

Gull resisted the shift and manager Dave Bodger said the company would consider dropping the price of diesel tomorrow following a review of the markets.

The last price hike was on July 7 when 91 octane fuel hit $2.19 on the back of record crude oil hikes.

Since then it has dropped steadily, bottoming out at $1.33 as crude prices dropped from $US140 ($NZ259.59) a barrel to well below $US40.

source: nzpa,nz herald