There is, however, a thin silver lining from the insurance giant, with its data revealing the city’s petrol stations are offering some of the Central West’s cheapest fuel.

The average price for unleaded petrol in Orange on Wednesday was 156.9 cents per litre.

On those filling up in Bathurst at an average cost of 156.2 cents per litre were better off, with the region’s most costly fuel was found in Dubbo, priced at 163.2 cents.

Fuel prices are at a four-and-a-half year high, with particularly sharp rises in the last 12 months.

One year ago, the average price for unleaded petrol in Orange was 126 cents per litre, with almost all Central West centres seeing a rise of between 20 and 30 cents in that same time.

On Wednesday, diesel in Orange cost an average of 159.7 cents – one of the lowest marks in the region.

At this time last year it was priced at an average of 126.3 cents per litre.

NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said prices were high because of a weaker dollar and rising world oil prices.

Crude oil is now selling at $84.48 USD a barrel compared with $60.86 USD a barrel on October 17, 2017.

“The factors causing these increases are global and unfortunately Australia has no control over them,” Mr Khoury said.

“These include cuts to oil production by OPEC and Russia, tension between the US and Russia and Iran with the threat of sanctions – all oil producing countries - and Saudia Arabia’s war with Yemen; Saudi Arabia is the world’s second largest oil producer.

“Unfortunately, prices have been too high for 2018 and these prices are getting worse leading to Christmas. There appears little relief in sight.”

According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, prices in regional Australia change more slowly than in the five largest cities because retailers in many regional areas tend to have lower stock turnover than city sites.

At the same time, the ACCC says fuel prices are higher in regional Australia due to, among other factors, lower population and demand and higher costs for transport and storage of fuel, among other factors.