NRMA foresees petrol at $1.80 a litre.


Car insurer NRMA is predicting petrol prices could climb closer to $2 a litre by the end of the year.
The cost of oil increased yesterday after BP announced it is closing a major Alaskan oil field for maintenance.
The NRMA's Alan Evans expects petrol prices will rise next week and he fears they will increase further if the US has a bad hurricane season and Middle East tension continues.
"Worse case scenario, and I hope it never happens, is around $US100 a barrel of crude oil which would translate pretty well round to the $1.80 mark at the pump," he said.
However, metropolitan motorists who are baulking at the prospect of paying a possible $1.80 a litre for petrol should consider those living in the Torres Strait, where residents on the outer islands are already paying $2.65 a litre.
Fuel prices affect everything in the Torres Strait.
Diesel powers electrical generators, desalination plants and the barges that bring fresh food to the remote islands.
Dennis Wong is selling diesel for $2.49 per litre on Murray Island and unleaded for $2.27.
He says many local fisherman cannot afford to leave shore and if prices continue to rise he predicts people will not be able to afford fresh fruit and vegetables.
"Our freight prices for groceries have probably gone up about 20 per cent in the last three or four months," he said.
"There's nothing anybody can do about it except their way of life will just have to be curtailed and live in a third world sort of lifestyle.
"I think everybody's going to have to starve, I suppose."
Mr Wong says state and federal governments should subsidise fuel or provide local councils with more funding.
The Federal Government scrapped its subsidy on the freight of fuel to remote areas in July.