1
00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:02,360
Speaker 1: We always keep it pretty close ony on the petrol

2
00:00:02,400 --> 00:00:05,280
Speaker 1: prices in the Northern Territory, and it had been raised

3
00:00:05,280 --> 00:00:07,560
Speaker 1: with us in recent days that there seemed to sort

4
00:00:07,560 --> 00:00:10,840
Speaker 1: of be on the rise to some degree now not

5
00:00:10,920 --> 00:00:13,640
Speaker 1: to the extreme prices that we've seen previously. But joining

6
00:00:13,720 --> 00:00:15,960
Speaker 1: us on the line for a bit of insight is.

7
00:00:15,960 --> 00:00:18,880
Speaker 2: Jeff Trotter from Fuel Track. Good morning to you, Jeff.

8
00:00:19,840 --> 00:00:20,720
Speaker 3: Good morning Keaty.

9
00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:23,439
Speaker 1: Been a little while since we last spoke, Jeff. Things

10
00:00:23,480 --> 00:00:26,720
Speaker 1: seem to have been slightly calmer across the board when

11
00:00:26,760 --> 00:00:28,080
Speaker 1: it comes to petrol prices.

12
00:00:29,560 --> 00:00:33,720
Speaker 3: Yes, and that look two factors. There was a relative

13
00:00:34,159 --> 00:00:37,120
Speaker 3: stability in terms of the underlying oil price, and then

14
00:00:39,840 --> 00:00:44,320
Speaker 3: over the winter period and early into this year, you know,

15
00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:47,400
Speaker 3: the situation, the fighting situation on the ground in Ukraine

16
00:00:47,600 --> 00:00:54,680
Speaker 3: had quite down, if that's the word. But with the offensive,

17
00:00:54,880 --> 00:01:01,800
Speaker 3: the Ukrainian offensive, the impact on these or prices internationally

18
00:01:01,880 --> 00:01:06,320
Speaker 3: is now being felt because of you can imagine the

19
00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:13,000
Speaker 3: demand for diesel in Europe currently and even though it's

20
00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:18,560
Speaker 3: got no direct connection to the Australian supply situation, it

21
00:01:18,720 --> 00:01:20,400
Speaker 3: certainly affects the price.

22
00:01:21,400 --> 00:01:21,680
Speaker 2: Yeah.

23
00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:25,280
Speaker 1: Right, So what kind of impact do you think we're

24
00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:26,640
Speaker 1: going to see JF.

25
00:01:27,840 --> 00:01:33,039
Speaker 3: Well, you're seeing it already. Anybody that's driving diesel vehicles

26
00:01:33,040 --> 00:01:37,080
Speaker 3: in the territory would have seen prices in recent times

27
00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:42,600
Speaker 3: increased by ten to fifteen cent selea possibly more. Petrol

28
00:01:42,640 --> 00:01:45,360
Speaker 3: prices have gone up ten cents sole in the last

29
00:01:45,480 --> 00:01:50,320
Speaker 3: couple of weeks, so just to be specific, the oil price,

30
00:01:50,360 --> 00:01:54,000
Speaker 3: the underlying oil price has gone from US seventy seven

31
00:01:54,040 --> 00:01:56,840
Speaker 3: dollars a barrel to US eighty seven dollars US a barrel.

32
00:01:57,440 --> 00:02:01,920
Speaker 3: When you do the conversion from rols to leaders and

33
00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:05,280
Speaker 3: then from US currency to Australian currency, that's an increase

34
00:02:05,320 --> 00:02:09,520
Speaker 3: of nine point five cents leader. And then, as I said,

35
00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:13,600
Speaker 3: you've got another factor on top of that for diesel,

36
00:02:14,480 --> 00:02:17,640
Speaker 3: which is more than the increase in the oil price.

37
00:02:17,680 --> 00:02:21,240
Speaker 3: There's been an increase in the diesel international price and

38
00:02:21,280 --> 00:02:26,520
Speaker 3: that's gone up about fifteenth cents a detail. So they

39
00:02:26,560 --> 00:02:33,720
Speaker 3: will only be moderated if the oil supply situation stabilizes again.

40
00:02:34,440 --> 00:02:38,600
Speaker 3: Saudi Arabia had announced quite significant production cuts in the

41
00:02:38,639 --> 00:02:41,640
Speaker 3: last meeting and that's been the underlying reason for the

42
00:02:41,639 --> 00:02:45,040
Speaker 3: oil price increase. And then we've got the war in Europe,

43
00:02:45,560 --> 00:02:48,600
Speaker 3: which is the underlying reason for the high diesel price currently.

44
00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:51,840
Speaker 3: So if we move into the winter, the northern winter,

45
00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:58,639
Speaker 3: and the situation on the ground in the Ukraine stabilizes

46
00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:01,800
Speaker 3: it again, there's not normally a fan is mounted in winter.

47
00:03:02,600 --> 00:03:06,160
Speaker 3: As you know, Napoleon learned this lesson, we hope, yeah,

48
00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:10,040
Speaker 3: when he tried to tried to invade, and as did

49
00:03:10,120 --> 00:03:15,000
Speaker 3: Hitler in the winter. So that the war situation should stabilize,

50
00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:18,680
Speaker 3: that should impact on the diesel and then the oil

51
00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:22,880
Speaker 3: price is expected not to go above ninety. So there's

52
00:03:22,880 --> 00:03:26,480
Speaker 3: probably another three cents a leader year the oil price,

53
00:03:27,280 --> 00:03:31,200
Speaker 3: and probably with a bit of luck, by Christmas time,

54
00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:36,440
Speaker 3: the diesel price should have been dropping should be dropping again, And.

55
00:03:36,360 --> 00:03:38,240
Speaker 1: I guess that's what we're all going to be hoping for.

56
00:03:38,360 --> 00:03:42,000
Speaker 1: It is really fascinating and it's quite amazing when you think,

57
00:03:42,040 --> 00:03:45,800
Speaker 1: you know, here in little old Darwin, we're being impacted

58
00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:48,520
Speaker 1: by what's going on in the war in Ukraine.

59
00:03:48,560 --> 00:03:49,720
Speaker 2: But it makes sense.

60
00:03:50,880 --> 00:03:54,520
Speaker 3: Well, we'll look. The other interesting thing about the Northern

61
00:03:54,600 --> 00:03:58,720
Speaker 3: territory market. And I don't know if you guys realize it,

62
00:03:58,760 --> 00:04:02,560
Speaker 3: but in recent years is you've had some of the

63
00:04:02,800 --> 00:04:09,000
Speaker 3: cheapest average prices in Australia yeah, I mean there was

64
00:04:09,080 --> 00:04:13,280
Speaker 3: no question that Darwin was always the laughing stock of

65
00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:16,159
Speaker 3: petrol prices in Australia. You know, like you just you know,

66
00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:18,520
Speaker 3: you had to take your you know, take out a

67
00:04:18,520 --> 00:04:22,160
Speaker 3: housing land and sell your veh Glen Darwen. But but

68
00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:27,680
Speaker 3: the the impact of competition, and I know you might

69
00:04:27,680 --> 00:04:29,920
Speaker 3: find it hard to believe. You know, you've got You've

70
00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:33,880
Speaker 3: got United, you have Pumor, you've got shellbep Celtech, Stampole

71
00:04:34,839 --> 00:04:38,200
Speaker 3: and so on. Those those service stations and that mix

72
00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:40,840
Speaker 3: of service stations and the fact that you've really got

73
00:04:40,880 --> 00:04:46,000
Speaker 3: too many service stations for the population means that they

74
00:04:46,080 --> 00:04:52,599
Speaker 3: actually compete. And even today you can get a spread

75
00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:56,840
Speaker 3: of prices in Darwin between the doraty nine and a

76
00:04:56,880 --> 00:05:00,520
Speaker 3: dollar ninety six for front lettered for d you can

77
00:05:00,680 --> 00:05:02,520
Speaker 3: you can get it for a dollar ninety eight or

78
00:05:02,560 --> 00:05:05,800
Speaker 3: you can pay ten dollars fourteen yep. And even down

79
00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:09,040
Speaker 3: in Tennant Creek and cats From and so on, there's

80
00:05:09,040 --> 00:05:11,680
Speaker 3: a spread of prices between service stations on most of

81
00:05:11,720 --> 00:05:15,080
Speaker 3: these fuels of ten to fifteen cents a liter. So

82
00:05:15,800 --> 00:05:18,120
Speaker 3: you know, just drive around.

83
00:05:18,279 --> 00:05:19,240
Speaker 2: Shop around a bit.

84
00:05:19,320 --> 00:05:21,919
Speaker 1: And it's funny, Jeff, because quite often we here in

85
00:05:21,920 --> 00:05:24,320
Speaker 1: the Northern Territory. Go, oh, you know, they're all they're

86
00:05:24,360 --> 00:05:26,280
Speaker 1: all at the same bloody price, you know, and there

87
00:05:26,320 --> 00:05:28,040
Speaker 1: is quite a few of them that do sit it

88
00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:29,000
Speaker 1: around the same price.

89
00:05:29,040 --> 00:05:31,200
Speaker 2: But your spot on there is a big difference, are

90
00:05:31,279 --> 00:05:33,880
Speaker 2: a big gap today. So it does actually make a difference.

91
00:05:33,960 --> 00:05:35,679
Speaker 2: And also the fact.

92
00:05:35,520 --> 00:05:37,760
Speaker 1: That we do have a lot more service stations here

93
00:05:37,800 --> 00:05:40,760
Speaker 1: than what we did sort of five years ago, yep.

94
00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:46,440
Speaker 3: And per capita, you guys have got the highest pretty

95
00:05:46,520 --> 00:05:51,520
Speaker 3: much the highest ratio of service stations apart probably from Adelaide.

96
00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:53,920
Speaker 3: And again Adelaide is a case study.

97
00:05:54,200 --> 00:05:54,400
Speaker 1: Yep.

98
00:05:54,600 --> 00:05:57,960
Speaker 3: There are so many service stations in Adelaide that they

99
00:05:58,120 --> 00:06:02,480
Speaker 3: Adelaide has cheap fuel price. They have cheaper fuel prices

100
00:06:02,520 --> 00:06:11,240
Speaker 3: than Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. It's the concentration or

101
00:06:11,279 --> 00:06:13,640
Speaker 3: the number of service station, not the concentration the number

102
00:06:13,640 --> 00:06:17,680
Speaker 3: of service stations. And as long as there's a concentration

103
00:06:18,120 --> 00:06:19,760
Speaker 3: of independent service.

104
00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:22,440
Speaker 2: Stations, yeah, so that's what makes a difference.

105
00:06:23,320 --> 00:06:26,080
Speaker 3: And look, that is a concern we've got because I

106
00:06:26,120 --> 00:06:29,520
Speaker 3: don't know if you're aware of it, but Shell Viva

107
00:06:30,480 --> 00:06:34,960
Speaker 3: is planning on buying a company called on the Run. Yeah,

108
00:06:35,520 --> 00:06:38,559
Speaker 3: part of that as part of that deal they would

109
00:06:38,560 --> 00:06:41,440
Speaker 3: get control. I think about twenty three service stations in Darwen.

110
00:06:42,520 --> 00:06:42,799
Speaker 1: Right.

111
00:06:42,960 --> 00:06:44,680
Speaker 3: The last thing, the last thing I would want to

112
00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:49,200
Speaker 3: see in Darwin is shell Viva taking over control of

113
00:06:49,279 --> 00:06:52,800
Speaker 3: the old Puma or the Chevron or the on the

114
00:06:52,880 --> 00:06:58,280
Speaker 3: run sites in Darwin. So I'd strongly recommend that everybody

115
00:06:59,160 --> 00:07:02,440
Speaker 3: bring up their local member and say we don't want

116
00:07:02,480 --> 00:07:05,960
Speaker 3: our independent service stations taken over by shell Viva.

117
00:07:06,080 --> 00:07:08,520
Speaker 2: Yeah. Right, So where is this at, Jeffs? Where's this?

118
00:07:09,040 --> 00:07:10,160
Speaker 2: You know, this potential deal?

119
00:07:10,280 --> 00:07:15,240
Speaker 3: Ash? It's with the A triple C. Right. Shell Viv

120
00:07:15,760 --> 00:07:19,160
Speaker 3: plans to take over two hundred service stations run by

121
00:07:19,200 --> 00:07:22,480
Speaker 3: on the run. Twenty three of them are in Darwin

122
00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:25,400
Speaker 3: and one hundred and eighty of them roughly are in Adelaide.

123
00:07:25,600 --> 00:07:30,600
Speaker 3: So we see two red flags. Obviously, they would remove

124
00:07:30,640 --> 00:07:34,480
Speaker 3: a major competitor in Adelaide and they would remove a

125
00:07:34,520 --> 00:07:38,360
Speaker 3: significant competitor in Darwin. And as I said before, the

126
00:07:38,360 --> 00:07:41,520
Speaker 3: only reason there is cheap prices in Darwin and Adelaide

127
00:07:41,960 --> 00:07:44,320
Speaker 3: is because of the independent service stations.

128
00:07:44,640 --> 00:07:46,880
Speaker 1: That is really interesting to know, and I reckon that

129
00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:48,240
Speaker 1: a lot of people like this is going to be

130
00:07:48,280 --> 00:07:50,360
Speaker 1: the first that they're hearing this today and thinking, oh,

131
00:07:50,400 --> 00:07:52,160
Speaker 1: hang on a second, that I don't want this to

132
00:07:52,160 --> 00:07:53,720
Speaker 1: happen if it's going to make a difference to what

133
00:07:53,760 --> 00:07:54,320
Speaker 1: I'm paying.

134
00:07:55,120 --> 00:07:59,600
Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely, So please get in touch with your local

135
00:08:00,120 --> 00:08:02,760
Speaker 3: member up there and put a stop to this takeover

136
00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:04,760
Speaker 3: by shel Weaver.

137
00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:08,080
Speaker 2: And so it's with the A triple C right now.

138
00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:12,320
Speaker 3: Yeh, all right, well, we'll.

139
00:08:12,120 --> 00:08:14,040
Speaker 1: Definitely have to keep an eye on that. Hey, Jeff,

140
00:08:14,080 --> 00:08:16,000
Speaker 1: I do want to ask you. Last week, we were

141
00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:20,320
Speaker 1: in a situation here in Darwin. We're out at Vopak. Obviously,

142
00:08:20,400 --> 00:08:25,040
Speaker 1: the handlers out there they were going to take industrial action,

143
00:08:25,080 --> 00:08:26,480
Speaker 1: and we'd all wondered whether it was going to have

144
00:08:26,520 --> 00:08:29,920
Speaker 1: an impact. When it came to our petrol prices. It

145
00:08:29,960 --> 00:08:32,840
Speaker 1: didn't seem to have a huge impact. I know some

146
00:08:32,840 --> 00:08:35,160
Speaker 1: people were saying, oh, they've gone up a couple of cents.

147
00:08:35,800 --> 00:08:37,760
Speaker 1: You know, Was it because of the threat of the

148
00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:39,160
Speaker 1: industrial action out there?

149
00:08:39,280 --> 00:08:40,360
Speaker 2: Did you see much on that?

150
00:08:42,360 --> 00:08:46,680
Speaker 3: No? But look the reason, there's all sorts of reason

151
00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:49,920
Speaker 3: Boupak came into the sistance, but it's the best thing

152
00:08:49,920 --> 00:08:52,199
Speaker 3: that ever happened with all the companies. But apart from that,

153
00:08:53,200 --> 00:08:59,360
Speaker 3: it does mean that Darwin has very significant fuel storage capacity. Right,

154
00:09:00,520 --> 00:09:05,640
Speaker 3: so unless there is some major disruption, you know, shippings

155
00:09:06,280 --> 00:09:09,800
Speaker 3: strike to prolonged strike, some sort of state of emergency thing,

156
00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:14,240
Speaker 3: the storage volume capacity that's held by the orcomers that

157
00:09:14,320 --> 00:09:18,640
Speaker 3: go pack shouldn't have any significant impact on fuel supply

158
00:09:18,679 --> 00:09:22,360
Speaker 3: in the territory for weeks, not days. Weeks.

159
00:09:23,240 --> 00:09:27,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, Oh, I tell you it is an interesting

160
00:09:27,480 --> 00:09:31,440
Speaker 1: conversation this morning, Jeff. And hopefully we don't see those

161
00:09:31,840 --> 00:09:33,880
Speaker 1: those prices go up too much more. But you said

162
00:09:33,880 --> 00:09:35,760
Speaker 1: that there's probably going to be a few cents still

163
00:09:35,760 --> 00:09:35,960
Speaker 1: to go.

164
00:09:37,240 --> 00:09:41,360
Speaker 3: Yeah. Look, we hope, we hope that it peaks at

165
00:09:41,480 --> 00:09:46,040
Speaker 3: ninety US a barrel. Look in the worst of it

166
00:09:46,240 --> 00:09:48,720
Speaker 3: last year, he got up to just over one hundred.

167
00:09:50,080 --> 00:09:54,840
Speaker 3: You know, we're at eighty seven now at this point

168
00:09:54,880 --> 00:09:58,559
Speaker 3: in time. You've seen the effect of about a ten

169
00:09:58,600 --> 00:10:01,680
Speaker 3: centime to rise that's coming through. But we're hoping that

170
00:10:01,679 --> 00:10:05,520
Speaker 3: that might max out at another three maximum.

171
00:10:06,080 --> 00:10:09,480
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and hopefully not too much further than that. Well,

172
00:10:09,640 --> 00:10:13,560
Speaker 1: Jeff Trotter from fuel Track, really good to catch up

173
00:10:13,600 --> 00:10:15,520
Speaker 1: with you, the general manager there, Thank you so much

174
00:10:15,559 --> 00:10:17,000
Speaker 1: for having a chat with us this morning.

175
00:10:17,920 --> 00:10:20,680
Speaker 3: Thank you, Katie, and as I said to your listeners,

176
00:10:21,080 --> 00:10:23,360
Speaker 3: get them to contact the local member and put a

177
00:10:23,400 --> 00:10:26,880
Speaker 3: stop to that takeover of the Independent in Darwin.

178
00:10:27,280 --> 00:10:29,080
Speaker 2: Cheers, thank you, Thanks Jeff,