The Royal Automobile Association (RAA) claims Naracoorte residents pay some of the highest petrol prices in regional South Australia while Mount Gambier residents have access to the cheapest.

RAA Senior mobility manager Mark Borelace said the increased price of crude oil paired with the weakened Australian dollar has been adding a pinch at the pump.

“We have had some generally higher fuel prices in more recent times internationally and that’s also for Australia, and this is because crude oil prices have been rising slightly but our dollar has been a getting little weaker,” he said.

“Because all of our oil contracts are in US dollars those two things have been adding a little bit of underlying pressure to the price.

“The good news is the South East continues to be one of the cheaper regions and last time I looked it was around about $1.85/1.90.”

Mr Borelace said petrol prices have stabilised since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Mr Borelace said as the cost of crude price rises it makes some of the oil fields viable, including in Venezuela and America, that may not have been previously, putting a bit of stability back into the market.

“The oil is in the sand and it is more expensive to get back out then traditional methods but if the price gets high enough then all of a sudden those oil fields become viable,” he said.

“America can start to produce from there rather than pulling in oil from other countries and that releases that oil into the market for other people to buy.”

Mr Borelace encouraged motorists to shop around to get the cheapest fuel in the area using a fuel app especially amid the rising cost of living.

“One of the issues you have got right now, obviously petrol prices are feeding into a whole lot of other problems so you have got interest rates quite high now so most families are under sort of stress,” he said.

“Petrol prices is one of the few costs if you are smart enough you can try and minimise, and I suppose it comes back to that old story of knowing where to find the cheaper prices using some sort of fuel app to see where they are.”