Orange petrol prices have continued to climb, but the city has second cheapest prices in the state

On Monday, Orange's average unleaded fuel price was 172 cents per litre, making it the second cheapest average price in the state out of the major areas monitored by the NRMA.

Orange was beaten only by Gunnedah, which had an average of 161.5 cents per litre.

Bathurst had the third best average price for unleaded at 173.1 cents per litre.

All three regional centres are paying considerably less than Sydney's average of 189.2 cents per litre, and the eye watering 199.99 cents per litre that Sydney's most expensive outlets were charging on Wednesday.

But that's likely to be cold comfort for local motorists, who've seen average fuel prices creeping up by 11 cents since the end of January and by 95 percent since the lows of May 2020, when petrol fell to just 88.2 cents per litre in Orange.

A NRMA spokesperson said that global conditions affecting fuel have not eased, causing prices to rise.

"We're still seeing higher than average demand globally and an extremely high wholesale price at the terminal gate for petrol in NSW.

"We're waiting to see updated figures from OPEC, the global petroleum organisation, to see how they are going to address the supply shortages in the near future, especially given the ongoing tensions in Ukraine, which could reduce oil supplies even further."

With all those factors still at play, there are no signs of prices dropping in regional NSW anytime soon.

The best that can be hoped for is that they will stabilise.

"We're hoping that over the course of the next week maybe retailers will try to stabilise their prices, but given the demand is still going to remain high, we're not overly optimistic for seeing any sharp reductions," the NRMA spokesperson said.

"It's only going to be within a couple of cents."

As of Wednesday afternoon, the best price available for unleaded fuel U91 in Orange was the Metro Lucknow at 167.9 cents per litre, according to the Fuel Check app, eight cents cheaper than the most expensive unleaded at Caltex Orange Diesel stop.

The Metro Lucknow also had the best prices for diesel (173.9) and e10 (165.9).

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