Vale : Cheap Petrol

[lovetravellingoz]

VALE: Well with the banning of Coles and WOW offering fuel vouchers in excess of 4 cents as of Dec 31, my access to cheaper petrol has been cut off.

It was good while it lasted.

The two major supermarket chains would regularly run 20-30 cent per litre off discounts for $30-100 shops. Whenever the large discount vouchers were on offer I would stock up, which would then last me to the next offer. Apart from buying groceries, buying say $100 of Bunnings, or JB Hifi, or Hoyts vouchers etc would do the trick. If you needed $100 and had only say $82 of groceries you could just grab a $20 voucher to top up.

I would also buy my WOW/Coles group Gift cards at those times too, for even though they were not meant to, occasionally they would produce spit out a fuel discount too.

28 days more of cheap petrol and then it is back to paying full whack ( 4c is illusional as there are non-Coles/WOW stations which are normally cheaper by around that margin anyway).

 

[Isochronous]

The ACCC should be shutdown. They are making prices more expensive for consumers!

 

[spudseamus]

Come on ! This is a voluntary decision by the major supermarkets ! You watch ,soon you will get a 4 c discount for a $1 item and then allowed to use 5 x4c dockets per fill!

 

[docjames]

Good riddance.

They were slowly pricing the others out of the market by subsidising the 30cpl offers with groceries, and heading to a duopoly in fuel as in supermarket retailing as the non-aligned fuel brands couldn't compete.

Whilst the current "majors" may not be perfect, more of them in the market is preferable to a duopoly.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Come on ! This is a voluntary decision by the major supermarkets ! You watch ,soon you will get a 4 c discount for a $1 item and then allowed to use 5 x4c dockets per fill!

Err no. The ACCC are not stupid.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Good riddance.

They were slowly pricing the others out of the market by subsidising the 30cpl offers with groceries, and heading to a duopoly in fuel as in supermarket retailing as the non-aligned fuel brands couldn't compete.

Whilst the current "majors" may not be perfect, more of them in the market is preferable to a duopoly.

While I agree and understand the logic behind it (all businesses being allowed to compete fairly).....my lot in life is to "maximise" whatever the current rules permit, and therein is a big reason why we all use AFF.

 

[mannej]

Good riddance.

They were slowly pricing the others out of the market by subsidising the 30cpl offers with groceries, and heading to a duopoly in fuel as in supermarket retailing as the non-aligned fuel brands couldn't compete.

Whilst the current "majors" may not be perfect, more of them in the market is preferable to a duopoly.

Extreme dislike to the good riddance comment. As a consumer I couldn't care less as the bigger fuel dockets were great.

There will never ever be a duopoly in the fuel market over here considering you have BP in the market as well...

 

[AdMEL]

Extreme dislike to the good riddance comment. As a consumer I couldn't care less as the bigger fuel dockets were great.

There will never ever be a duopoly in the fuel market over here considering you have BP in the market as well...

As a consumer, the fuel discounts were great .... in the short term, but long term I think they are detrimental to competition and price. Just look at how many people complain about Coles and Woolworths supermarket prices being high and them being a duopoly!

And what makes you think BP won't leave? Just because they are large does not mean they will stay if it's not profitable for them. You only have to look at Mobil as an example of this.

 

[mannej]

Coles and Woolworths prices aren't high compared to the competition here in Perth (for what I need). If we had Aldi it would be a different story but IGA just doesn't compete.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

Coles and Woolworths prices aren't high compared to the competition here in Perth (for what I need). If we had Aldi it would be a different story but IGA just doesn't compete.

Real Competition is coming to WA in 2015 with Aldi opening up to 60 planned stores in the state.

For the first time in over 10 years, since the sale & subsequent demise of Foodland, West Australian's will get some much needed competition in the grocery sector.




20

 

[Simo]

I purchase my fuel from an independent and he is around the same price if not a bit cheaper than Coles and Woolworth's petrol.

And he still does the old fashion service thing.

Fills up my car for me and even washes my windscreen for me as well.

 

[mannej]

And what makes you think BP won't leave? Just because they are large does not mean they will stay if it's not profitable for them. You only have to look at Mobil as an example of this.

Difference between Mobil and BP (in Perth at least) is that BP has the refinery where as the others don't.

 

[AdMEL]

Difference between Mobil and BP (in Perth at least) is that BP has the refinery where as the others don't.

That's irrelevant!

Mobil and BP are multinational companies - looking at it from the perspective of a state in Australia, which is not their home market, is too narrow.

After I posted my comment, I checked to make sure I was on the right track ....

Mobil has significant refining and storage/distribution operations in Victoria (Altona refinery and Yarraville storage, that have been there for decades), but that didn't stop them pulling out of retail, I assume because it was unprofitable.

And further to that, my understanding is that pretty much all of the refineries in Australia, are unprofitable, due to a combination of old facilities that are too expensive to upgrade, lack of volume and cheap fuel available from nearby, including the likes of Singapore, where I understand we now source a majority portion of petrol supplies.

My guess is that it won't be very long before we no longer refine petrol in Australia, along with demise of things such as car manufacture (much to my disappointment, in all cases).

 

[cmon0005]

Today the fuel prices at my local coles were the highest I've seen in a very long time $1.82/l for vpower. I wonder if this is just price gouging due to 1st jan or a sign of things to come to show the accc who's boss?

 

[mannej]

That's irrelevant!

Mobil and BP are multinational companies - looking at it from the perspective of a state in Australia, which is not their home market, is too narrow.

After I posted my comment, I checked to make sure I was on the right track ....

Mobil has significant refining and storage/distribution operations in Victoria (Altona refinery and Yarraville storage, that have been there for decades), but that didn't stop them pulling out of retail, I assume because it was unprofitable.

And further to that, my understanding is that pretty much all of the refineries in Australia, are unprofitable, due to a combination of old facilities that are too expensive to upgrade, lack of volume and cheap fuel available from nearby, including the likes of Singapore, where I understand we now source a majority portion of petrol supplies.

My guess is that it won't be very long before we no longer refine petrol in Australia, along with demise of things such as car manufacture (much to my disappointment, in all cases).

How many refineries are there in Victoria?

 

[AdMEL]

How many refineries are there in Victoria?

Two - Mobil in Altona and Shell in Geelong.

From a very quick Google search, it appears there is one in WA and seven in Australia:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oil_refineries

As you can see from that list, our refineries are small on a world scale, hence my previous comments.

How is that relevant to the discussion and the rest of my comments?

 

[mannej]

Two - Mobil in Altona and Shell in Geelong.

From a very quick Google search, it appears there is one in WA and seven in Australia:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oil_refineries

As you can see from that list, our refineries are small on a world scale, hence my previous comments.

How is that relevant to the discussion and the rest of my comments?

I don't see BP pulling out of Australia - hence it is relevant to your duopoly comments.

 

[AdMEL]

Further to my comments above, it appears the remaining refinery in NSW is to be closed, which leaves six. If its not viable to operate one refinery in the most populous state, what hope do the rest of the refineries have, with Singapore refineries more than four times the size and therefore more efficient?

Interesting to read that NZ has a refinery, which provides 70% of their refined oil needs!

 

[AdMEL]

I don't see BP pulling out of Australia - hence it is relevant to your duopoly comments.

But you still haven't explained why you think that, despite me asking!

I've explained why I think that is not the case.

 

[The Rok]

How much does retail account for BP's revenues? They have huge industrial and aviation business.