The price of fuel in Maitland spiked earlier this week rising an eye-watering 11 cents, making the city one of the state's most expensive places to fill up.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Head of NRMA media Peter Khoury said the timing of the dramatic increase couldn't have come at a worst time with motorists taking to the roads over the Easter break.
Mr Khoury said Maitland's close proximity to Sydney means prices have followed suit, with Sydney's fuel prices taking a similar trajectory ahead of price hikes in Maitland and Newcastle.
But just up the road at Cessnock there's a massive price difference.
On Wednesday the price of unleaded 91 at some Cessnock service stations was 176.7 compared to Maitland's 211.9 - a 35.2 cent difference. The price of E10 in Cessnock on Wednesday was as low as 153.6 compared to Maitland's 173.9.
Prices started to fall across some Maitland locations on Thursday.
"The price of fuel in Maitland has moved up about 11 cents in the past four to five weeks," Mr Khoury said.
"That's quite high and puts Maitland in the top quarter of the regional locations for the price of fuel. Anything above 192 is pretty high," he said.
He said Cessnock prices were among some of the cheapest in the state.
"Maitland is expensive - unfortunately that's the nature of the industry at the moment," Mr Khoury said.
"Maitland will invariably follow the Sydney and Newcastle price trend. It's been pretty high in Maitland for regular unleaded.
"The average price was 189.6 last week and to plot the process over the past few weeks it went down 1.2 cents few weeks ago then for the next two weeks there was no movement and the average price stayed the same then jumped 11 cents.
"The timing of that jump was very unfortunate.
"Newcastle and Sydney did the same about three weeks earlier and Maitland followed," Mr Khoury said.
He was hopeful that by Anzac Day prices will have dropped.
"Sydney prices have started to fall slowly and Newcastle and Maitland should soon follow," he said.