Kiwi drivers filling up with 91 are now paying more than ever before, with the average price of a litre hitting an all-time-high, according to fuel monitor Gaspy.
Gaspy said the national average for the most popular grade broke the previous record of just over $3.50, set in early April soon after the US and Israel struck Iran. The average had sat at $3.49 earlier on Monday.
The latest increase follows a sustained period over where the price of Brent crude has stalled at above US$100 a barrel.
Prices jumped in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch and across the rest of the motu.
Fuel monitor Gaspy says the cost of 91 has broken the last record of a fraction over $3.50. (Source: 1News)
ASB acting chief economist Kim Mundy said a weak Kiwi dollar was adding to the pain of high global oil prices.
"Because global oil prices are high, when we bring that into the country, that flows through into the price we see at the pump. But at the moment there's also another element coming through in the fact that the New Zealand dollar is quite low. So, it's also costing us more from an exchange rate point of view to import that fuel."
Pump prices spiked after the strikes on Iran at the start of the year, then fluctuated before easing back. They began climbing again in early September.
Mundy said the higher cost of filling up would hit household budgets.
"If you're having to pay more every time you go and fill your car up at the pump, there's just less money at the end of the day to spend on other things."
Conflict on two fronts
Fighting in the Middle East has kept oil prices high. In Yemen, on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, the Saudi-backed government has escalated its fight against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who recently struck an Aramco oil facility in neighbouring Saudi Arabia.
Russian supply has also come under pressure, after Ukraine hit another key Russian oil facility over the weekend.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would answer Russian attacks on its power network by targeting Russia's energy sector.
"With their attacks on our energy, we have to respond on their energy. First of all, oil refiners etc., what gives money to them for this war. But we will not respond, of course, just like them, on any civilian objects."
Reuters reports Chinese refiners have suspended some fuel exports, including to Singapore, which supplies much of New Zealand's refined fuel.
The G7 group of advanced economies has pledged to release 100 million barrels of oil and diesel to ease global supply concerns. The pledge followed a US threat to restrict its own diesel exports to counter high domestic prices.
Asked on Saturday whether a diesel export ban was off the table, US President Donald Trump credited Europe.
"Well, we were never going to do it... Europe was great because they're putting a lot of diesel oil out there."
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