19/09/2026
Good morning Candelo and surrounds! Just a warning, we've had 2 separate customers report to us over the last week that they've gone out in the morning to find their cars' fuel tanks have been drained in the night. If your tank doesn't lock, you can get lockable fuel caps or anti-syphoning devices quite cheaply from automotive stores. In the mean time, park near the house, or alternatively with the side of the car with the fuel intake jammed ag*inst the thorniest bush on your property!
You won't have needed this evidence to remind you that fuel prices are on the rise ag*in. The current spike is happening because Saudi Arabia is also experiencing some problems in the neighbourhood, though in their case the fuel isn't being pinched, it's being locked in.
When the Gulf States were drawn up, Saudi Arabia got the real estate with the second-biggest oil reserves in the world, but the waterfront blocks were snaffled by Yemen and Oman. Saudi Arabia is basically a battleaxe block, but one with a driveway on both sides - the Strait of Hormuz to the east and the Red Sea to the west. Since the Strait of Hormuz was blocked earlier this year, Saudi has continued to ship out much of its oil, using a pipeline that carries it to the Red Sea coast, and from there sent it to the Mediterranean for Europe or the Indian Ocean for Asia.
Last week this arrangement fell apart. A drone attack (probably Iranian) destroyed at least 3 of the pipeline's pumping stations, and at the same time, across the other fence, the Houthi rebels in Yemen (who have been fighting the Saudi-backed Yemeni government for the last 20 years) seized Yemen's Red Sea coast. This gave them control of the chokepoint where the Red Sea flows into the Gulf of Aden, the Bab-el-Mandeb or "Gate of Tears" (named after the amount of shipwrecks it has caused historically, but now equally applicable to its role in global cost of living crises). This is why fuel is rising ag*in - along with the fact that the Ukrainians have been launching their own drone attacks on Russian oil refineries. Russia is the world's 2nd largest exporter of diesel, so this means that shutdowns in Russia lead to price hikes around the world.
Fortunately for anyone interested in peace (or even just stable trade flows) the Saudis' troubles aren't leading to an expansion of the war. They demanded America's help in at least sorting out the Yemen situation, but the US refused: a Pentagon report released this week admitted that as a result of the Iran war there are severe "strategic inventory shortfalls" (ie, they're running out of missiles), their regional bases have been destroyed and they have lost dozens of military aircraft. Basically the current international scorecard reads: beleaguered middle powers/rebels in flipflops 2, global superpowers and their allies nil. If national interests continue to trump (so to speak) business interests, this should mean that the war doesn't last much longer. Without war, production and trade can get back to normal and prices will gradually come back down.
At the moment, we share your pain. On Friday we ordered exactly the same amount of fuel as we had ordered on Tuesday, but it cost $776 more. As we've said before, our "profit" ("margin" is probably a more accurate word) isn't a percentage of the total, it's a certain number of cents added to the cost we paid per litre. Our cut on Tuesday was $800. On Friday, because we ordered the same number of litres and added the same number of cents, our cut was still $800, even though the fuel was $776 more. It seems crazy, but we don't actually expect to profit on the actual fuel, just to cover its cost - the fuel companies' rationale is a bit like the American restaurant system: the celebrity chef gets people through the door, and the wait staff are given the chance to get tipped for serving their food. Australian servos operate on a similar model: the fuel gets people through the door, so the fuel companies reckon we should be able to sell them enough lollies, drinks etc to cover our wages.
It might seem a mug's game but it's important to keep doing it, and not only because otherwise you'd have to drive further to get fuel. There are 2.7 million small to medium businesses in Australia and only 5000 big ones (ie employing more than 200 people), but those 5000 big businesses take 44% of all business revenue. The bigger a business is, the less tax it pays, the more power it has over government, and the more inclined it is to bend everything towards its main goal, which is profit. As we're seeing on the oil front, nations might be drawn into unprofitable wars and kept there because while the country's treasury and power is draining away, the billionaires in charge are making a fortune. Every small, barely-profitable business that holds back that tide is good for the community, the country and for democracy itself.
Keep your tanks topped up - and also locked up! And hang onto the thought that two-thirds of Americans want an end to the war, and with their mid-term elections approaching, hopefully the little people with votes will show the big companies who's in charge!
