{"id":600009,"date":"2026-09-14T11:24:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T11:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/600009\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T11:24:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T11:24:18","slug":"fuel-prices-tipped-to-keep-rising-as-conflicts-squeeze-global-supply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/600009\/","title":{"rendered":"Fuel prices tipped to keep rising as conflicts squeeze global supply"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drone strikes on a critical Saudi Arabian oil pipeline, a shuttered Strait of Hormuz and sustained Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries are fuelling a deepening global diesel shortage, with New Zealand pump prices set to rise as a result.<\/p>\n

The average price of 91 has already jumped 15 cents a litre over the past 28 days to $3.11, while diesel is up more than 14 cents to $2.79.<\/p>\n

Attacks targeting oil sites and trading routes overseas are affecting supply. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Three conflicts, one oil crisis<\/p>\n

AA principal policy adviser Terry Collins said there were three converging events constraining supply.<\/p>\n

“One is the shutting off of the East-West pipeline by the Saudis<\/a> \u2013 that was an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, which is shut,” he told 1News. <\/p>\n

“Iranian oil is not getting through \u2013 traditionally it went to China or India.” <\/p>\n

\"AA<\/p>\n

AA principal policy adviser Terry Collins. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

The third factor, he said, was Ukraine’s continued strikes on Russian oil infrastructure, “to the point where President Trump has asked the Ukrainians to stop attacking Russian diesel facilities”.<\/p>\n

Collins said Ukraine had little incentive to ease off before the US midterm elections in November. <\/p>\n

“I can’t see any relief coming to us until around about that time, and maybe even out to Christmas.”<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia shut down the pipeline after it was attacked the previous day, with the Ministry of Energy describing the closure as “a precautionary measure”. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia closed its East-West oil pipeline after it was struck by drones<\/a> as Yemen’s Houthi rebels continued to advance<\/a>, giving them greater power to disrupt shipping through the Red Sea’s Bab al-Mandab Strait \u2013 the gateway for around 7% of global oil.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump pointed to Ukraine’s strikes on Russian oil sites as a driver of the shortage, calling on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to stop targeting diesel infrastructure. <\/p>\n

“Let him go after targets, but not diesel fuel, because he’s causing a shortage of diesel fuel,” Trump said.<\/p>\n

“This isn’t done by the Middle East, this is done by what’s happening with Russia and Ukraine.”<\/p>\n

More price rises coming \u2014 but not April’s record highs<\/p>\n

\"There's<\/p>\n

There’s nothing false about this year’s rise in fuel costs. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Collins said crude oil was trading at around US$107 to $108 a barrel<\/a>, and motorists had already been hit with sharp increases last week.<\/p>\n

“There’ll be more price jumps because those price increases were only for previous events.”<\/p>\n

However, he did not expect prices to reach the highs recorded in April and May, when diesel overtook petrol<\/a> and reached about $3.80 a litre in some places, with petrol around $3.50.<\/p>\n

The uncertainty around the initial attack isn’t there. We’ve had time to adjust some of the pipelines, the logistics have shifted to allow for that – but there’s still a real tightness in the market.”<\/p>\n

\"There's<\/p>\n

There’s nothing false about this year’s rise in fuel costs. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Price pressure came down to four factors beyond New Zealand’s control: crude prices, refining costs \u2013 known as the crack spread \u2013 shipping costs, and a weaker dollar.<\/p>\n

“We don’t have a supply problem, we have a price problem,” he said, pointing to additional storage capacity at Marsden Point<\/a>. <\/p>\n

“A lot of that is being driven by the refineries and the additional revenue they’re getting from the shortage of oil and the cracking spread.”<\/p>\n

Collins said the sustained high prices could accelerate New Zealand’s shift toward electric vehicles<\/a>. <\/p>\n

“The unintended consequence of this is we might have a cleaner fleet in the future as consumers seriously consider buying battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drone strikes on a critical Saudi Arabian oil pipeline, a shuttered Strait of Hormuz and sustained Ukrainian attacks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,5107,111,139,69,244,1979],"class_list":["post-600009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-middle-east","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-personal-finance","tag-russia-invades-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}