Some motorists may have noticed slightly cheaper oil prices across the country this week, but experts warn any relief at the pump may be short-lived as global oil prices continue to climb.
Parts of the country have seen petrol dip below $3 a litre this week. According to fuel price app Gaspy, the average price of 91 earlier today was $3.24 a litre — down around 5% over the past 28 days.
Waitomo petrol group chief executive Simon Parham said the recent price drops had mainly been largely due to regular promotional discounts, but the overall price had still decreased.
"We have seen prices come off over the last couple of weeks," Parham said.
"Waitomo worked off about 40 cents a litre in the last two weeks on gasoline."
International markets are now causing fresh concern after global oil prices hit a four-year high yesterday, following talks of military action and a double blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.
Kepler senior oil analyst Naveen Das said the US blockade was preventing millions of oil exports from passing through the Strait of Hormuz and could see Iranian oil production drop by around 1.5 million barrels per day.
"That removal of even more supply is what's pushing the prices higher," he said.
Auckland University economics professor Robert MacCulloch said one of the world's biggest investment banks, Goldman Sachs, was forecasting oil to remain around US$90 (NZ$152) a barrel through to the end of the year.
"They've looked at refineries and even should the blockade end tomorrow it's going to take a long time to unwind," he said.
MacCulloch warned higher fuel prices could significantly impact annual household costs at a time when many families were already struggling.
"This is going to add potentially thousands more a year onto their bills and the Government has stated already that they don't want to spend a whole heap on essentially insuring people against the shock.
"The view is that you should insure people, probably, a lot more."
One motorist told 1News the impact was already being felt. He said filling up his car now cost around $170 for a full tank, when he previously paid $140.
"It's taking food out of people's mouths," he said.
Another said he was considering growing more vegetables in the garden "just to keep the cost of living down a bit".
Protesters gathered at Auckland's Karanga-a-Hape Station to call on the Government for free public transport as a solution to the fuel crisis.
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