According to Gaspy, the average price of unleaded 91 fuel is $2.80, up 17.96 cents or 6.84 per cent in the last month. However, regionally the average price is $2.96 in Auckland compared with Taranaki where it is $2.79.
Premium 98 is $3.15 per litre on average, up 23.75 cents or 8.15 per cent in the last month.
The cheapest unleaded 91 fuel in the country is at the newly opened Costco Westgate in Auckland where it's $2.49.
Terry Collins, policy director - motoring affairs at AA, said the weaker New Zealand dollar and sanctions on Russia as a result of their war on Ukraine were contributing to higher fuel prices for Kiwi motorists.
"The biggest difficulty is that Russia is the third-largest supplier of fuel in the world and there is not enough spare capacity in the rest of the OPEC countries currently to make up for what they would take out of the market," Collins said.
Collins said he sees prices internationally remaining over at least US$100 per barrel for the rest of the year, if not more.
"We're going to see this prolonged impact for a while," Collins said.
ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley said New Zealand's petrol prices were being pushed up by the combination of rising oil prices in US dollars and the NZ dollar falling against the US.
On the dollar falling, Tuffley said: "Nervousness about global growth, particularly China's growth while it locks down large proportions of its population to fight Covid, has dampened the NZ dollar.
"Times of risk aversion tend to support the US dollar as it is considered a safe haven. And the US dollar itself has been boosted by the US Federal Reserve's recent decision to lift interest rates sharply and signal more to come," he said.
Tuffley said petrol prices are likely to remain substantially higher than they were over 2021.
"On the assumption the war in Ukraine continues for several more months, petrol prices are likely to keep at a high level – ignoring any impact from excise tax changes. We expect that late in the year petrol prices will come down slightly, through a combination of slightly lower global oil prices on less tension in Ukraine and on some recovery in the NZD/USD," he said.
"But with the western world weaning itself off Russian oil, non-Russian oil prices are likely to be elevated compared to before the war."
In March, the Government removed 25 cents a litre off its fuel excise duty, but that is due to end in mid-June.
WTI Crude was trading at US$102.95 per barrel earlier this morning, and is up 49.7 per cent from June last year when it sat at $61.94.
The price of oil per barrel spiked drastically in early March in the weeks following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. On the day before Russia's attack, WTI Crude was trading around US$91, but it hit a high of US$123.70 on March 8.
And it's not just petrol prices rising either. According to Gaspy, the average price of diesel is up 30.83 cents or 13.7 per cent in the last month to $2.55 per litre.
