\u201cEven looking out into 2027, we think a reasonable working assumption is you\u2019ve got petrol prices still around $3 a litre \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026 It\u2019s really a case of households being hit particularly hard and what was looking like finally a bit of a recovery, we\u2019ve very much put that on hold and pushed it down the road by another 12 months or so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kiernan said international oil prices had consistently been below US$100 ($169) a barrel for a few days now.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that\u2019s helped a little bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere the prices are at the moment, I wouldn\u2019t say there\u2019s any particular upward pressure on them, which is nice.<\/p>\n
\u201c[But] I wouldn\u2019t be holding my breath for much further relief on the downside,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is there\u2019s almost nothing getting through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if the conflict was magically resolved tomorrow, you\u2019ve still got the air bubble in the supply chain to work through. You\u2019ve got damaged production facilities in parts of the Middle East, which means you\u2019re not going to get back to full capacity quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kiernan said the cost of refined fuel in Singapore, particularly for diesel, had come back about 20% over the last couple of weeks from where it was in early April.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019d seen previously was while international oil prices had surged, it had been a more pronounced rise than that in terms of the refined fuel output for diesel and that\u2019s why the diesel prices had lifted substantially more than the petrol prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a little bit of that unwind, they\u2019re still massively elevated. But that has provided a bit more relief on the diesel side than we\u2019ve seen in terms of petrol prices.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Z Energy, which also owns the self-service U-Go, said it was reasonable to expect continued price volatility while the conflict remains unresolved.<\/p>\n
\u201cZ sets retail prices based on replacement cost. This means prices are based on what it will cost to buy our next shipment of refined fuel from overseas, not the fuel that is already sitting in tanks today.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we can\u2019t speculate on future fuel price movements, Z remains committed to supplying fuel to our New Zealand customers.\u201d<\/p>\n