Prices just under $1.50 a litre are not uncommon. Coming off prices earlier in the year that were among the lowest in six years, the new highs are something of a shock for local car owners.

According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, many factors affect the price of petrol in Australia, from changes in benchmark prices to the value of the Australian dollar.

For most of us, the biggest factor is what’s called the “price cycle”. Starting with high bowser prices at most stations, the cycle winds down to just above cost, then below cost as retailers try to push volume, before ramping back up to the higher prices and jumping by as much as 15c or more a litre.

The cycle is volatile and unpredictable; currently it runs at about two weeks from highest to lowest bowser prices.

Local retailer Tim Campbell from Kel Campbell Pty Ltd, who operates stations in Milton, Vincentia, Shoalhaven Heads and Bomaderry, said he sets prices as fairly as he can.

“I have margins I have to work with, but when the cycle is high motorists think I’m discounting, and when the cycle is low some think I’m gouging them.

“I think bowser prices at the top of the cycle are obscene, and don’t understand why they go so high.”

Mr Campbell said retailers got their supply from different sources, including depots at Port Kembla and Sydney.

“I set my prices according to freight and outgoing costs. Prices may vary a few cents every two to three weeks.”

Mr Campbell said while he understood why some companies cycled their prices, it isn’t something he practised. Caltex Australia cycles prices at its sites, but these were not the same Caltex sites operated by Kel Campbell Pty Ltd.

“I can tell you that today my station in Vincentia, for example, is selling unleaded 8c a litre cheaper than in Wollongong.”

John Lamont, owner and manager of Nowra Chemical Manufacturers Pty Ltd, said high fuel prices in the Shoalhaven encouraged “escape spending”.

“Local businesses are disadvantaged when the difference in bowser prices between the Shoalhaven and Albion Park, for example, are 10c a litre or greater.

“First, it encourages local businesses to fuel up trucks and other vehicles outside the region, and second it exacerbates the problem we have of locals going to Shellharbour or Albion Park for their discretionary spending.”

He said when he was in Sydney on Thursday, prices ranged from $1.28 to $1.45 a litre.

“In the Shoalhaven today the bowser price at some stations is $1.50 a litre. The prices set by fuel companies in the Shoalhaven tighten the screw of high costs endured by businesses in the Shoalhaven.”