Australian federal consumer watchdog is urging motorists to shop around and grab the cheapest petrol they see, with prices expected to jump in coming days.
The average price for premium unleaded in NSW is already a staggeringly high 144.7 cents a litre.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said petrol prices would increase in the wake of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries' (OPEC) agreement last month to cut oil production and with the Australian dollar falling against the greenback.
Its analysis of petrol sales found that demand surges in the lead-up to Christmas and drops significantly afterwards. Demand then picks up again in late January.
"Motorists are advised to consider purchasing now when petrol prices are relatively low or have not yet reached their peak, and not wait until they need to fill up," ACCC chairman Rod Sims said.
But the NSW government-run FuelCheck tool shows petrol prices are already high, with the average price for Ethanol 94 at 129.5¢ a litre, Unleaded 91 at 130.6¢ a litre, and Premium 95 at 144.7¢ a litre.
Consumers are being encouraged to use the FuelCheck app and website to find the best deals.
The ACCC said wholesale prices were at their highest levels since September 2015 due to increases in international crude oil and refined petrol prices.
The rises followed OPEC's approval last month to reduce oil production from January - the first supply cut in eight years. Russia and other non-OPEC nations also agreed to cuts.
"Along with the falling exchange rate, the OPEC agreements are the primary reason for increases in wholesale petrol prices over the past six weeks and why motorists are likely to see higher petrol prices in the near future," Mr Sims said.
"The OPEC cartel, therefore, continues to cause Australian motorists to pay much more for petrol than they should."
NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said while there was no doubt there would be OPEC-related flow-on effects in Australia, petrol companies had already artificially inflated prices well before Christmas.
"My understanding is that the [oil production] cuts are only occurring in January, if indeed they go ahead. We expected there to be some increase in January as a result of OPEC but that increase came anyway, it came well before that," he said.
He added that petrol companies were "ripping people off".
"Not only did we not get to the low point of the cycle we were expecting before Christmas, but it didn't take very long for a number of the major service stations to increase their prices quite significantly," he said.
"Overnight, a number of service stations increased their prices to 144.3¢, which is way too high, the terminal gate [wholesale] price is 20¢ cheaper than that.
"None of the capital cities got to as low as we thought they would over Christmas. In Sydney, we had a false spike yesterday when a number of service stations jacked their prices up by more than 20¢ a litre.
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