Why is Australian unleaded 91 octane petrol benchmarked against Singapore 95 octane petrol?
Octane is only one of the many parameters that define the quality of petrol and all of these parameters need to be considered when choosing a benchmark price. Australia has very strict fuel quality standards which are generally higher than countries in Asia. This is part of Australian Government policy to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. The Australian wholesale price of petrol is typically based on a rolling average of MOPS95, shipping from Singapore to Australia, insurance, wharfage and conversion from US dollars to Australian dollars. MOPS95 is the daily average Singapore price for 95 octane petrol. While Australian regular unleaded petrol has a minimum octane of 91 it substantially exceeds the quality of petrol included in the MOPS95 price by having tighter quality specifications for sulfur, benzene and MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether). MOPS95 is closer to Australian specification petrol than MOPS92 so is a better benchmark for Australian prices.
