Oil drops 10% overnight — your bowser will get the memo next week, maybe

Guardian Australia · Graham Readfearn · Saturday 18 April 2026

Oil drops 10% overnight — your bowser will get the memo next week, maybe

Global oil prices fell sharply after Iran reopened the Strait of Hormuz during a US-Israel ceasefire, but Australian fuel prices may take a week to reflect the drop.

Oil prices go up like a rocket and come down like a feather — the oldest trick in the petroleum playbook, and every government since Fraser has watched it happen with the same stunned-mullet expression. Albanese was in a room with forty-nine countries when the strait opened. Forty-nine countries, and not one of them sets the price at your local BP.

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