The gap between Great Barrier Island and Auckland fuel prices has almost doubled this year, rising from less than $1 a litre in March to more than $1.70 by September — before the latest 30c increase on Aotea.
Gaspy data supplied to Barrier Times shows the average petrol price gap was 89.8 cents a litre on March 21, with Auckland at $3.27 and Great Barrier at $4.17. By September 13, Auckland had fallen to $3.04 while Great Barrier had risen to $4.75, putting the gap at $1.71 a litre — an increase of about 91 per cent.
This week’s increase of 30 cents a litre is not included in those figures and has pushed island petrol prices above $5. One pump was charging $5.11 a litre on Monday.
Aotea / Great Barrier Local Board chair Izzy Fordham said she had previously been told by Aotea Fuels owner Jason Gunn that he tried to keep the island price within $1 a litre of prices in Auckland.
“And now we’ve crossed above two,” she said.
Fordham said the price increases would “cripple a lot of people”, particularly those on fixed incomes.
“I don’t like it. I really don’t. And it will cripple a lot of people.”
Islanders filling up across Aotea on Monday described the latest increase as unsustainable.
“Everybody’s going to leave. There is no way to make ends meet. Where is he going to stop? He has a monopoly, right? So I guess he can do whatever he wants,” Chrissie said.
“He even puts the prices up even when he hasn’t taken a delivery of fuel. How do you justify that? He should be charging his margin on what he paid for the fuel. Nothing he says makes sense,” another islander said.
A local business owner said the increases could also affect the island’s tourism and service economy.
“There will be nobody like us on the island to clean his houses or lodges if he keeps this up.”
Another woman who runs a housing maintenance business said fuel was a major operating cost.
“We can’t afford to be in business with these prices because we have to drive from home to home and use petrol equipment. You call customers in this economy and tell them you have to add extra money for fuel and you run the risk of losing them altogether.”
One islander joked that rising prices could eventually send people back to more traditional forms of transport.
“I suppose some of us can go back to riding horses around like the old days. You see a lot more electric cars on the road. You’d expect more people to get those.”
Another said the latest prices were hitting household budgets hard.
“I approved my card to $300 and that didn’t even fill my tank. It’s just crazy.”
Aotea Fuels owner Jason Gunn said the company received wholesale price notifications from its supplier every Friday and reviewed its prices weekly.
Gunn said recent international volatility, including conflicts in the Middle East, had resulted in significant wholesale price movements.
“When prices are jumping up every week, then we may not be able to afford to pay for the next delivery,” he said.
Gunn said reductions were passed through to customers as soon as Aotea Fuels was notified of them.
Gunn said he did not know how Aotea Fuels’ wholesale price compared with what retailers in Auckland paid.
He said the cheapest fuel on the island was currently available at Whangaparapara and Port Fitzroy, where petrol was $4.73 a litre.
He attributed higher prices at Claris and Mulberry Grove to the additional trucking required to move fuel from Whangaparapara or Port Fitzroy after it arrives on the island.
Asked what costs and margins were built into the island price, Gunn said: “There is a simple calculation, just like any business, that has the wholesale price as it’s foundation, to which allowances for costs such as, transportation & shipping, storage, compliance, rents, insurances, repairs & maintenance, operating margins and GST are added.”
He did not provide figures for the individual costs or the operating margin, or if he had chosen to increase his margin amidst the crisis in the Middle East.
Gunn said the island’s small population and the cost of maintaining multiple fuel outlets were major factors in the price.
“This is why you do not see a major brand like ‘Z’ or ‘BP’ selling fuel on this Island, there just is not the volumes of fuel sold here to justify the investment.”
Fordham said the Local Board had previously spoken with local MPs about whether government assistance for island fuel costs was possible, but said council itself could not subsidise fuel.
“We’ve had the door shut on that one a few times.”
She also acknowledged that the island had previously had two fuel suppliers.
“We did used to have two providers or suppliers, if you like. But it’s commercial, and it’s never really healthy if there’s only one, but it’s what it is, unfortunately.”
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To be fair to Aotea Fuels they do support the community in a substantial way with cheap/free fuel to the likes of the club and Coast Guard. Caught between a rock and a hard place I reckon!
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