Australians should get used to paying more at the bowser because upward pressure on petrol prices will be sustained for the long-term, the nation's biggest oil refiner says. 

Caltex Australia Ltd, which held its annual shareholder meeting in Sydney yesterday, also rejected claims that fuel companies had engaged in price-fixing.

"Petrol prices are rising, and are expected to rise, but not because of collusion or price gouging as our critics suggest," chairwoman Elizabeth Bryan said.

The cost of crude oil was the real culprit, she said.

The price of the precious commodity has rocketed to about $US120 a barrel from just $US10 in the past decade.

Dwindling world oil supplies can’t keep up with rising demand, largely driven by the modernisation of China and India, pushing prices higher.

Oil exploration costs and production costs are increasing too, as miners are forced by falling onshore reserves to explore less accessible places.

Environmental regulation to minimise emissions is also going to increase petrol costs, Ms Bryan said.

Caltex has figured that an emissions trading scheme that forced companies such as Caltex to pay for their customer’s emissions would push petrol prices up by 10c a litre, assuming carbon is priced at $40 a tonne.

The Federal Government is expected to set a carbon price this year and wants to have a trading scheme by 2010.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has also proposed a national FuelWatch scheme, where service stations have to notify a central authority of their prices for the next 24 hours each day.

The scheme is already in operation in Western Australia and Caltex said yesterday it had dampened the fuel cycle, so it doesn’t go as low and it doesn’t go as high.

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