Advertisement
Australia markets close in 26 minutes
  • ALL ORDS

    7,953.40
    +28.20 (+0.36%)
     
  • ASX 200

    7,699.50
    +23.70 (+0.31%)
     
  • AUD/USD

    0.6528
    -0.0032 (-0.49%)
     
  • OIL

    82.57
    -0.15 (-0.18%)
     
  • GOLD

    2,164.00
    -0.30 (-0.01%)
     
  • Bitcoin AUD

    99,975.94
    -4,720.74 (-4.51%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     
  • AUD/EUR

    0.6004
    -0.0023 (-0.37%)
     
  • AUD/NZD

    1.0766
    -0.0012 (-0.11%)
     
  • NZX 50

    11,817.91
    +89.90 (+0.77%)
     
  • NASDAQ

    17,985.01
    +176.81 (+0.99%)
     
  • FTSE

    7,722.55
    -4.87 (-0.06%)
     
  • Dow Jones

    38,790.43
    +75.66 (+0.20%)
     
  • DAX

    17,932.68
    -4.02 (-0.02%)
     
  • Hang Seng

    16,550.90
    -186.20 (-1.11%)
     
  • NIKKEI 225

    39,760.32
    +19.92 (+0.05%)
     

Why petrol prices could be set to drop

Could Aussie petrol prices be set to drop? Source: Getty
Could Aussie petrol prices be set to drop? Source: Getty

Iran has discovered a new oil field with reserves estimated at more than 50 billion barrels, increasing the country’s total reserves by a third – and it has the potential to alter oil prices around the world.

“I am telling the White House that in the days when you sanctioned the sale of Iranian oil and pressured our nation, the country’s dear workers and engineers were able to discover 53 billion barrels of oil in a big field,” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said of the discovery.

While 53 billion barrels is certainly the biggest find of 2019, and the largest in some time, the field itself has not been developed for extraction.

ADVERTISEMENT

On top of that, Iran is facing some difficulty in selling the oil it already produces abroad due to US sanctions in place.

But will this have any effect on Aussie petrol prices?

Finance and household expert at Comparethemarket.com.au, Rod Attrill told Yahoo Finance that, for the immediate future, global oil prices were “not likely to be heavily influenced by the recent Iranian oilfield discovered”.

“We also shouldn’t expect to see any fuel price reduction in the short-term from this, as it can take several years to get crude oil out of the ground and along a transport route to get the barrels refined into usable products like petrol, diesel, and jet fuel,” Attril said.

But in the long-term, it’s a different story.

“Long-term, this discovery has the capacity to keep oil prices in check.”

The discovery follows a surge in global oil prices earlier this year when attacks on a Saudi Arabian key oil facility cut the nation’s production by half – pulling 5 per cent of the world’s oil supply off the market.

At the time, domestic prices didn’t react to the news.
"There are ample commercial stocks globally, and that's the key to making sure that this is as manageable as possible and that the impact is minimised,” Energy Minister Angus Taylor told the ABC.

Make your money work with Yahoo Finance’s daily newsletter. Sign up here and stay on top of the latest money, news and tech news.