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Anon
By AA | Moderator | 844 Posts | 20 January 2011 at 2:20pm

Is there any reason for the wide variety in price difference between 91 and 95 octane at different gas stations?

I am getting sick of only the 91 price being advertised and pulling in only to see that 95 is 7c a litre more, whereas at another station with a higher 91 price, the 95 may be cheaper.

Also why the fixation in quoting the price of 91, yes its the cheapest stuff but not everyone is driving an old low compression car and therefore can't use it. Perhaps the AA should look into the pricing of all the grades of gas when publishing articles about fuel prices?

Richard

From the "Ask Jack" archives - 29 April 2010

jbiddle
By jbiddle | Community Member | 1657 Posts | 21 January 2011 at 9:06am

This reply is from our Wellington office who monitor fuel prices on a daily basis;

We've recently publicised the growing price differential between 91 and 95, and the fact the latter is no longer advertised on the price boards. AA Petrolwatch has information on petrol prices and you may have seen the AA quoted on TV and newspapers.

We intend to keep pushing this issue so that the oil companies are pressured into re-advertising the price of premium fuels.

However, they are not required to advertise prices on the boards, only at the pumps, and as the price of 95 (and 98) has been creeping up, they now tend to only advertise the price of their cheapest fuel. But 80% of all petrol sold is 91 octane, so that is why it is quoted all the time.

The retail price of 95 has increased above the usual 5c/litre differential over 91 because the international commodity price has been slowly rising, particularly since the start of this year.

Believe it or not the price (like diesel) is set independently to 91 and the two are not as closely linked as people think. Earlier this year the (NZ$) commodity price was over 10c/litre above 91, yet the oil companies were still only charging a 5c premium. We expected they would slowly begin raising the retail differential, which they have now done, but each oil company sets its own prices and, perhaps because they are not advertised, they tend to differ from station to station (unlike 91).

As a guide, Caltex tend to only charge 6c more, Shell and Mobil 7c, and BP charge 8c more for 95.