Petrol prices likely to drop: expert

While households await their fate from Tuesday's federal budget, motorists may finally be in for some good news at the bowser.
Not from some generous budget measure from the government, but purely from market forces.
Commonwealth Securities, which closely watches the price of petrol and its impact on the economy, expects fuel could drop eight to 10 cents a litre in the next fortnight or so given the recent slide in global oil prices.
CommSec economist Savanth Sebastian says this would save motorists $7 every time they fill up their car.
The Australian Institute of Petroleum's weekly petrol price report showed the average unleaded petrol price rose a further 1.3 cents per litre to 145.9 cents in the past week, the highest level in two and a half years.
But Mr Sebastian said conditions are likely to improve from here.
"Global oil prices have slumped in the past week ... and as a result motorists are in for some massive savings at the pump in just over a fortnight's time," he said.
He said the Singapore unleaded petrol price, the benchmark for Australian priced, fell by its biggest weekly margin since September 2009 last week.
"The global oil market has been well supplied despite the Middle East tensions, and the past week has seen a return to fundamentals rather than speculation," he said.
He said the upcoming meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in June has also been a key factor driving prices lower, with member nations looking at potentially increasing oil supply in coming months.