“The average price of unleaded in Sydney once again fell by more than 10 cents per litre in the past week while median cost of petrol across rural and regional areas dropped by more than a cent,” an NRMA advocacy and community content spokesperson said this week.

With the wholesale price now well below the $1 barrier and Sydney’s average terminal gate price currently at 98.3 cents per litre, there is hope the retail price will also drop, they said.

At the end of July the average price for a litre of regular unleaded petrol Sydney was $1.19 while in Canberra it was $1.23, according to the NRMA’s Bowser Buster website.

The average price in Bega was much higher with a litre of regular unleaded costing $1.26 and diesel $1.23, ranking it 38th and 26th in the state respectively.

The price of diesel was $1.16 in Sydney and $1.23 in Canberra during the same period.

The price of fuel in Batemans Bay was also well above the state average at $1.30 for regular unleaded and $1.24 for diesel.

Goulburn was found to have the cheapest fuel in the state with a litre of unleaded costing $1.08 and the cheapest diesel was in Armidale at $1.15 per litre. 

Bega’s upward price trend seems a long way from late 2015 where a battle for customers evolved between the recently opened Coles Express outlet’s below cost price Shell petrol and the Woolworths outlet’s Caltex petrol.

Official statistics from the Bureau of Resource and Energy Economics (Australian Petroleum Statistics) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) for the March 2016 quarter show Australia has among the lowest petrol and diesel prices of all OECD countries.

Only Canada, the United States and Mexico offer cheaper petrol and the United States, Canada, Mexico and New Zealand offer cheaper diesel prices at the pump.

The statistics show both a pre-tax and post-tax prices, with Australian petrol and diesel prices slightly cheaper than US petrol before taxes are imposed.