Fuel Price

[skippydiesel]

"Bottom line, yes Australia does import ‘some’ Avgas, but the volumes are small, probably because the consumption is small."

 

Hmmm! "....volumes are small..."

 

Please elaborate;

 

By what measure? If you are comparing with the USA, yes their pilot populating is huge compared with ours.

OR

Are you saying that Au is almost self-sufficient in AvGas, so has no need of significant imports of the fuel?

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[Reynard]

An earlier poster indicated he had been told that 100% of Avgas consumed in Oz, was produced locally. My post was to provide data that Oz does import ‘some’ Avgas. 
 

in relative terms to mogas and diesel that are both produced locally and imported, the Australian consumption of Avgas is very small. I have no data to compare Avgas consumption with other countries. Additionally, it should be obvious the consumption of Avtur vastly outweighs that of Avgas in Australia.

[Love to fly]

27 minutes ago, Reynard said:

The import stats in the attached file seem very ‘lumpy’, and don’t really provide much insight.  Unless the Geelong refinery alkylation unit was down for an extended period in 2024 ?? - unlikely.

Bottom line, yes Australia does import ‘some’ Avgas, but the volumes are small, probably because the consumption is small.

 

Australian Petroleum Statistics - Data Extract January 2026.xlsx 2.61 MB · 1 download

Thanks. So why the increase in price, and reduced availability? 

[Reynard]

Excellent question!  You would think that Avgas demand would not have significantly changed over the past month, so something doesn’t stack up.

[facthunter]

Priorities?  Nev

[Reynard]

Probably - available fuel tankers (and DG drivers) all tied up trying to keep up with petrol and diesel demand, while Avgas was further down the list.

[T510]

The cost to get the avgas to the airports would have gone up considerably, the trucks delivering it still need Diesel to get there.

[Student Pilot]

2 hours ago, Love to fly said:

Thanks. So why the increase in price, and reduced availability? 

Because they can, free enterprise is charge what you can. If the demand is greater then cash in and profits are greater. The idea is to make as much money as you can, fairness or equity doesn't come into the equation. 

[facthunter]

Like reselling Footy tickets.  Nev

[kgwilson]

The demand for Avgas has declined considerably over the past few years. There are a number of reasons. There are fewer old aircraft that need Avgas and many of those still flying do not fly as much. The rise of recreational aircraft that do not need Avgas has been very substantial since the 90s. Modern aviation aircraft engines don't need it either. Diesel engines are appearing in ever increasing numbers.

 

The only reason I ever use Avgas is that it is the only fuel available at many aerodromes when I am away. I have used 95 or 98 petrol in my 3300A engine since new. No more lead deposits or fouled plugs.

 

World Fuel & IOR have been busy installing self contained Avgas units at many regional aerodromes over the last few years often at no cost to the aerodrome. They need to boost their share of a dwindling market.

[coljones]

11 minutes ago, kgwilson said:

The demand for Avgas has declined considerably over the past few years. There are a number of reasons. There are fewer old aircraft that need Avgas and many of those still flying do not fly as much. The rise of recreational aircraft that do not need Avgas has been very substantial since the 90s. Modern aviation aircraft engines don't need it either. 

 

World Fuel & IOR have been busy installing self contained Avgas units at many regional aerodromes over the last few years often at no cost to the aerodrome. They need to boost their share of a dwindling market.

IOR has just installed a Mogas facility at Camden.

[BurnieM]

1 hour ago, coljones said:

IOR has just installed a Mogas facility at Camden.

I wonder about the viability of MOGAS at an airport.

 

Often you can get it significantly cheaper at a servo.

You just have to be prepared to hump the jerry cans.

 

[coljones]

8 hours ago, BurnieM said:

I wonder about the viability of MOGAS at an airport.

 

Often you can get it significantly cheaper at a servo.

You just have to be prepared to hump the jerry cans.

 

I suspect that the outline means that mogas is not available so I'm not sure how accurate the price is.

[skippydiesel]

11 hours ago, coljones said:

IOR has just installed a Mogas facility at Camden.

Maaaate what country do you hail from??????

 

MoGas is a USA marketing constriction of the term Motor Gasoline - Gasoline (Gas) being the US popular name for petroleum (petrol).

 

In Australia we use the more acurate descriptor - Unleaded Petroleum (ULP). Petroleum often shortened to petrol or ULP. ULP commonly comes in 98, 95, 91 RON & E10 (Ethanol 10% blend).

 

 "MoGas  Regional" is also the name of a fuel distribution company.

 

In all cases a cringeworthy attempt to define their offering as something special, (marketing hype) by adopting an overseas term -sad!.

 

A ULP supply at Camden airfield, will struggle as the vast majority of aircraft at that local are powered by LyCons (likly users of AvGas ). This combined with being a tower controlled airfield means few RAA level aircraft ( often ULP users) frequent the facility.

 

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