“As you are aware fuel prices have risen significantly in recent months. The primary driver is the increase in crude oil costs which have recently passed $US 85/barrel for Brent Crude. This is more than a 50% increase since January 2021 and something the retailer has no control over. It has been caused by a cutback in production from OPEC countries and Russia at the same time as the global economies are staging a rapid economic turnaround from the global pandemic. There is no immediate solution in sight, and some are speculating that we could see further rises to $US100/barrel by Christmas.
As you can see from our infographic, with the recent carbon tax increases taxes make up almost 65% of the pump price. While we acknowledge that an increase in carbon tax is the Governments way to encourage consumers to look at alternative options for driving i.e.: electric cars – this is fine in an ideal world where everyone has easy access to electric charge points and cheap electricity; IPRA does not believe we are near that point at this time and a lot of work is still required to encourage consumers to move away from fossil fuels. Our belief is that with alternative fuels such as hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) available now and offering an immediate 88% reduction in CO2 emissions, liquid fuels will be around for many years to come. Government needs to look at a range of options to reduce emissions from transport and offer incentives and subsidies to encourage further development around bio and synthetic fuels ”.
