Bowser relief: Petrol prices tumble as global oil cost falls

Résumé détaillé

Motorists are finally seeing some relief at the petrol pump after the cost of crude oil falls 20 per cent this month.

Australian motorists are finally seeing some relief at the petrol pump, new analysis shows, as steep falls in global oil prices start flowing through to service stations, wiping roughly 20¢ a litre off local fuel costs so far this month.

For the first time since August, average petrol and diesel prices have started to tumble nationwide, driven by a sharp 20 per cent drop in the cost of Tapis Crude, Australia’s regional oil benchmark, over the past fortnight.

NRMA figures to be released on Friday show the national average for regular unleaded has fallen by almost 22¢ since late October to $2.23 a litre. Diesel prices, meanwhile, have fallen by more than 20¢ to $2.71 a litre. At some service stations, unleaded has now dipped back below the $2 mark.

The price retreat comes as markets are responding to a long-awaited lift in Middle East oil shipments and signs that Donald Trump wants to de-escalate the Iran war following his party’s heavy losses in the United States midterm elections.

Some energy analysts are betting that the Democrats’ sweep of Congress will hike pressure on the Trump administration to reach a deal to end the war, now in its ninth month, noting that Trump has already struck a more conciliatory tone. In the past week, Trump has suggested that any new major strikes on Iran were unlikely and declared the conflict “effectively over”.

Brent oil, the global benchmark for crude, which was trading at nearly $US120 a barrel at the end of October, has fallen as low as $US90 a barrel this week.

Also helping drive down the price has been a recovery in Middle East oil production and exports out of the Persian Gulf.

While the conflict has crippled oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway off Iran’s coastline that usually carries about one in five of the world’s oil tankers, oil companies in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations have managed to divert significant volumes via pipelines to other ports.

The Commonwealth Bank this week said monthly oil flows out…

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