You miss my point; since July 1997 when Costello cut the Singaporean petrol & diesel price
benchmarking deal with the Multinational Oil Companies, Australia has moved from being an exporter of oil to being an importer
of oil. One can argue whether this is coincidental or causal; my hypothesis is that it is causal
and that it is more profitable for the Multinational Oil Companies to import oil based on this
pricing deal than drill, pump and refine our own.
(a) since 1997 the multinational Oil Companies have not invested in onshore oil prospecting
(b) that since the Oil Companies did not object to the deal then or even now, we have to assume
that the deal benefits them
(c) Mobil & Shell produce there quarters of Singapore's petrol and diesel and our entire petrol
and diesel prices are based on their 'wholesale" prices outside the area of responsibility
of our ACCC.
This is very well worth investigating by treasurer Hockey who oversees the ACCC.
For example, all that is needed is an official Singaporean wholesale price and a discount
to this for sales transactions (like the hotels rack rate vs the real rate) and then base our
benchmark pricing on the Wholesale Price.
