Petrol prices in the Illawarra have broken through the $2 a litre ceiling - and they could have been even higher.
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The price for regular unleaded in the Illawarra is as high as $2.15 a litre, with no service stations pricing it at under $2 as of noon on Thursday.
At that $2.15 figure it would cost a whopping $129 to fill a 60-litre fuel tank.
That $2.15 figure takes into account the recent halving of the fuel excise announced in the March budget - which has taken 22 cents a litre off the price.
That excise relief is set to end on September 28, just weeks before the Labor government plans to hand down its budget.
At this stage it is not known whether the excise relief will continue.
The NRMA's Katrina Usman said petrol prices have been especially volatile this year.
An oil refinery fire in South Korea saw prices for a barrel of oil jump $10 a litre last week, before falling again by $7 this week.
But it is a range of worldwide issues that are causing the high prices the region - and the country - is experiencing.
"What we are seeing is the recent oil refinery fire that drew prices up $10 a barrel," Ms Usman said.
"Prices are still staying high due to a number of global factors including the ongoing war in Ukraine, the COVID lockdown and the strong US dollar, because oil is traded in US dollars."
The volatile nature of oil prices made it difficult to accurately predict if and when the pain at the bowser will ease, but Ms Usman was hopeful prices wouldn't keep climbing.
"We're hopeful to see prices go down," she said.
"I know everybody is eager to see some relief at the bowser after a year of such high petrol prices.
"It does take time [for a drop in price] to filter through. We're hoping we'll see the bottom of the fuel price cycle in the next two to three weeks in Sydney, so customers in Wollongong will be looking at a similar time frame."
Usually, the advice when prices are high is to shop around, using either the Fuel Check or NRMA app.
Normally, this can show a wide span of prices, sometimes as much as a difference of as much as 30 cents a litre.
But the price gap between the lowest and highest prices for regular unleaded is smaller than usual.
As of noon on Thursday, the highest price was at the lone service station at Helensburgh at $2.19 a litre.
The lowest was $2.06 at Barrack Heights - a gap of 13 cents.
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