Wow. Found something I agree with Leigh on. How about that.

I went past a service station in one suburb .Petrol 108 cents a litre.So thought ,do the right thing get it from your local service station. I pulled up only to be confronted with 118 cents a litre!! When I inquired about the huge difference I was told petrol prices vary from suburb to suburb depends on the oil company that runs it.
It seems it is regulated like our big super markets,some suburbs dearer than others .
Seemed to me the service station people use their own priceing.as I had friends who had a service station ,and every morning he would go check on other servo prices and then adjust his prices accordingly! Be it same or just below,
So don't tell me they, the service station owners, have nothing to do with the priceing

Service station owners certainly have some say in where the prices are set, but few will set them below the cost of purchase (or if they do, they wont for very long - basic rule of being in business is to make money). So yes, servo owners are just as likely to jump on the bandwagon if it is available to them. However, it is well publicised that there is lucky to be 1c/litre profit in petrol retailing, and from what I have seen as an accountant, this is true. Retailers tend to make their money off the other services that they have, be it a garage, meals, store, videos etc.

So given that retailers at the end of the day make little money out of their fuel, that leaves the oil companies to make most of the profits. Given that we are an anti-regulation nation (what a rhyme!!), what are we to do about it? Well to start with, use as little fuel as possible, support your independent retailers as often as you can, buy cars that are fuel efficient (many small diesel cars will go more than 1000km to a tank), use public transport if it is available to you (there is none where I live, so I've not much choice but to drive). There are lots of little things we can do to reduce the impact. If we start to use less fuel, we can hope that the fuel companies will start to compete harder for their market, and thus lower prices to reasonable levels (based of course on what they can buy it for).

My Grandfather told me how they stopped rip off prices in Melbourne during [ or was it after ? ] the war. Everybody put only the minimum amount of petrol that they needed - from different stations, any day of the week. Sounds simple, dont it. Now because petrol is like fruit and veg, it CANNOT BE STORED FOREVER.It gets contaminated. In other words, the refinery has to keep up a continuous flow from plant - to storage - to stations - to YOU. What happened was that because everyone was buying the minimum of fuel from all stations, the law of maths applied. There came a day when more stations were out of fuel than could be supplied AND then the day when no stations needed any fuel. You get it yet ?.
The percentage of stations that ran out, increased while another lot didn't sell much and didn't need any on delivery days. IT WORKED!!

Real ezy...jump on yer push bike, save the planet, lose some lard, and maybe the oil barons will get the message...?

When the last barrel of oil is financially unobtainable, when the last ever ounce of gasoline is auctioned off on E-Bay, then and maybe then we will see the folly of it all. Until that happens, human greed such as it is will control the markets.

Some good suggestions about personal behaviour to alleviate high fuel prices, but the principal reason for high fuel prices is not so much the price of oil, rather it is the price of refined products. There has been a great demand for petrol and other fuels, but no corresponding spending on greater refining capacity. There has been a lot of NIMBY attitudes to new refineries in principally the US, but also throughout the developed world. Those companies that own refineries have been making extraordinary profits. $50 billion in the case of Mobil & Shell.
All it will take is another Hurricane Katrinna and we will see $2 litre fuel.
It is worth mentioning the Flex engine that is made in Australia by Holden and exported around the world, principally to South America. It runs on ethanol from 0% to 90% and should be marketed in Australia as well. Why it isn't is a great curiosity that I haven't seen answered.