The war has already had "huge" impacts on petrol prices with wholesale barrel prices increasing by $5 overnight.

"What we have seen overnight is a pretty big jump and the expectation is that it will go up again and obviously that is going to have an adverse effect globally, but also across regional NSW," NRMA head of media Peter Khoury said.

"It's a really volatile period so it won't be a surprise to see the prices jumping around a little bit."

The average for petrol in Wagga is at about $1:75 per litre with diesel being "slightly more expensive".

Changes to petrol prices were first made earlier in the week when the first attack on Ukraine was initiated by Russia.

"Unfortunately because of the nature of the conflict the severity of it and the fact that there will be sanctions imposed on Russia and that Russia is the third-largest oil producer, this war will have an adverse impact on prices in Australia," Mr Khoury said.

And while the entire country will cop the brunt of the war, it will be particularly hard on regional areas, with Wagga being no exception.

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"Diesel, in particular, is significant because as we know the Australian economy largely runs on diesel, farming communities run on diesel, regional communities use diesel, manufacturing and mining infrastructure- this is all run on diesel, transport services run on diesel and with these record-high diesel prices invariably it's going to have a negative impact on regional communities specifically," Mr Khoury said.

Mr Khoury said it is difficult to pinpoint what prices we may be looking at in the coming days and weeks, but it will no doubt be an unflattering sight for residents who are already fed up with the high figures displayed across the city's pylon signs.

"Because the prices are so volatile the closest thing we've got to a benchmark is the wholesale price," Mr Khoury said.

"So, that's the wholesale price of the petrol that service stations buy from the terminal, it's at a record high, it's at $1.70 so we would expect that to flow on.

"It's hard to point out a set figure on where we see the forecasting, purely because the situation is so volatile."

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