Big jump in Bathurst fuel prices, but they're still considered fair

On Monday, May 4, Bathurst's cheapest retailer Pearl Energy was offering unleaded fuel for 83.5 cents per litre.

A week later, the price had been increased to 96.5 cents per litre, with the other retailers in Bathurst also upping their prices.

NRMA spokesperson Bridget Ahern said that last week Bathurst had one of the best average prices in NSW and the change appeared to be a "correction" to be in line with prices across the rest of the state.

"What we're seeing now is just a little bit of a correction unfortunately," she said.

"You had that one service station, Pearl Energy, who clearly went out really hard and decided they were going to really aggressively get as much of the market as they could.

"The wholesale price for petrol isn't sitting at that 83 or 85 cents that they were charging, so they were probably losing a little bit of money by being so aggressive, so what has happened is that the lowest retailer has increased their prices and everyone else had followed suit to match."

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Even with the increase, Ms Ahern said prices were still very fair in Bathurst.

People should only start to worry if prices start to go well above $1 per litre.

"At the moment, anything under $1 is a very fair price. Once prices start getting over that $1.10 mark, then we'd be saying 'What's happening here? Why are prices so expensive?'," Ms Ahern said.

While it is hard to know what will happen next, as Bathurst is a very competitive market, she suspects prices will likely remain stable and potentially drop a little lower.

Motorists are encouraged to continue to shop around for the best price and, if they're travelling, to plan their fuel stops.