Monitoring of the Australian petroleum industry 2008 - Report

Report of the ACCC into the prices, costs and profits of unleaded petrol in Australia.

The Minister for Competition and Consumer Affairs directed the ACCC to monitor the prices, costs and profits of unleaded petrol products and report to him by 17 December each year.

This is the first report given to the minister.

The information presented in this report largely confirms the key conclusions arising from the ACCC’s petrol inquiry in 2007, that is:

• Movements in the price of petrol in Australia are overwhelmingly determined by the international price of refined petrol.
• The industry is concentrated at the refining and wholesale levels.
• There is extensive trading in petrol at the wholesale level between the refiner-marketers.
• There are impediments to the large-scale importing of petrol by an independent.
• There is active price competition at the retail level.