Petrol prices plummet in city

Affordable housing is not the only thing making Whanganui attractive these days - we have some of the cheapest fuel in New Zealand.

Petrol prices fell to their lowest level in seven years yesterday - and for any motorist filling up in Whanganui the news was even better.

Yesterday a number of service stations around the city had dropped the price of 91 octane petrol to $1.82 a litre, with diesel tumbling to $1.12 a litre. Prices across the other brands varied within a few cents of those prices. Caltex pumps had 91 octane priced at $1.86 a litre and diesel at $1.13

Ray Stevens who owns Double SS Motordrome on the outskirts of the city, said the prices typified the "Gull effect" continued to have on Whanganui pump prices.

Mr Stevens said those price differentials were happening in other centres where a Gull station operates, leading to competitors dropping their prices to try to match the independent Gull dealer.

He said the price differential in Wanganui always prompted comment from customers who called into his service station.

Dave Bodger, Gull NZ general manager, had told the Chronicle earlier this year that his company was able to keep its prices down because it imported through a single terminal at Tauranga and sourced its fuels from the Asia-Pacific basin rather than the Marsden Point refinery.

An AA spokesman said the price drop was mostly due to further reductions in commodity prices and a slight strengthening of the NZ dollar which is back over US67c for the first time in a month.

"Oil prices have fallen to US$40 a barrel which is nearly the lowest since January 2009," he said.

The last time refined fuel commodity prices were this low, petrol prices were $1.73 a litre and diesel $1.07 a litre.