By Gemma Q. Casas
Variety News Staff

THE two major fuel suppliers in Micronesia on Wednesday said the islands’ demand for fossil fuel will continue to grow and there is no guarantee that the prices here will get lower even if they form a regional oil procurement agreement due to their relatively small market and isolated location.
But retired Maj. Bob Bevelacqua, a former Green Beret, said the islands, just like the rest of the world, are “victims” of the global oil cartel in the Middle East and Latin America.
“It’s extortion,” he said referring to the oil cartel’s system of selling fuel.
Now the vice president of Leonie Industries LLC, a company with ties to firms promoting alternative energy, Bevelacqua said the islands should explore their natural resources — ocean, sun and wind — to provide for their energy needs.
“You have an advantage that the mainland U.S. does not have. So how do you tap into it?” he said.
Ruben Domingo, president of Shell for the North Pacific, said Micronesia consumes about 35 million gallons of fuel a month.
Guam accounts for 60 percent of the amount; the CNMI, 14.6 percent; Palau, 5.2 percent; the Marshall Islands, 4.8 percent; and the Federated States of Micronesia, 4.1 percent.
Domingo said when the 8,000 Marines from Okinawa, Japan are relocated to Guam, the island’s fuel consumption will shoot up even further.
Alan Teng, Mobil Oil Mariana Islands general manager for the Pacific Islands Group, said the costs of providing oil to small islands in the region adds to the price.
“At the end of the day, you cannot be insulated from higher fuel prices,” he said, during a presentation on the second day of the 7th Western Micronesian Chief Executives Summit.
He said the world will need 30 percent more fuel in the coming years as the populations of various countries increase. “We need to find a way to meet that energy demand. A lot of our spare capacity has been used to meet the demands of India and China.”