Photo: RNZ
The country's consumer watchdog - has found that market dominance in the retail fuel sector could be preventing competition and motorists may be paying too much .
The Commerce Commission says the big three fuel companies are highly profitable, and getting better returns than might be considered reasonable.
The import, processing, storage and distribution of fuel is dominated by - Z Energy, BP, and Mobil.
That means they have limited incentive to compete, preventing competitive pressure from driving down wholesale prices.
Z Energy chief executive Mike Bennetts reacts to the Commerce Commission's preliminary market study into the reasonableness of fuel prices.