The price of petrol at one Auckland station has broken through the $3 mark.
The Mobil petrol station on the corner of Ponsonby Road and Karangahape Road had Supreme Premium 98 at $3.07 and Supreme Premium 95 at $3.00.
These prices were significantly higher than the national average of $2.79.
In late 2021 the national average of 91 was $2.39 per litre. In Auckland at the start of the year it hit $2.70, according to price-tracking app Gaspy.
Now it's looking set to break through the $3.00 mark across the city.
Terry Collins, a principal policy advisor at the AA, warned in January prices will rise in the long-term - and the days of cheap oil will "come to pass".
"Initially COVID and lockdowns hammered demand, where at one point oil was given away for the first time ever as there was not enough storage to hold what was been exploited. That caused massive cuts in production," Collins says.
"As countries came out of lockdown and economic activity increased, it did at a rate faster than production.
"This was further exasperated by coal shortages and then gas storages as the Northern Hemisphere came into winter and demand increased for electricity."
Collins said petrol prices will be volatile over the next few years given a lack of new natural gas supply. As a result, oil prices will be put under pressure, he says.
"Longer-term oil prices will continue to increase as the decade passes. By then we will be exhausting the source of cheap oil.
"In 2022 they [prices] will be at the mercy of COVID variants and the impact they have on economies and lockdowns.
"[It's] very hard to predict as there is so much uncertainty."
