Increasing trends in Australian Diesel prices

While I have had my petrol prices page up since early 2002, readers recently have been nagging me to do a page on diesel prices. I though petrol price data could be obscure to get hold of but diesel !!, you would think national security was involved.  
First we looked at WA FuelWatch  who have graphics on their website showing the last month daily data. Sure enough ULP is trending down while diesel goes ballistic.  No wonder users are annoyed, politicians forget that many people can still count.

To get a longer term grip we look at what is available and the US data is there on the DoEnergy web site.
From January 2001 USA average pump gasoline prices and US highway diesel prices have been getting cheaper compared to the world oil spot price trend, presumably due to a competitive economy. Note at the same time Australian ULP trends the other way, due to our decades of dumb policy and uncompetitive but very profitable Oil industry (click for Caltex share price chart).  We are looking for longer term Australian pump diesel price data if anyone can help.

Update 3 Nov 04. For a  look at Australian trends we have daily data from late January 2004 and it sure contrasts with the US picture. The AIP figures are for imports ex Singapore and I have converted to A$ c per litre. The few months of daily av Perth pump prices from FuelWatch fits with my converted AIP price and we will keep extending the FuelWatch numbers.
Notice how Perth grocery chain ULP is very competitive showing a declining Osama Index.  While in a huge contrast the diesel price trend rises right through the ULP trend with this divergence continuing through September.
Why would price trends diverge to this extent ?
Our theory is that the numbers are revealing a sweetheart deal to suppress pump ULP prices through the election campaign.  There being more petrol using voters than diesel using.  Keep checking our updates of daily data graphics,  the numbers will tell the story.
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