By Gemma Q. Casas
Variety News Staff

TINIAN — The roads here are almost deserted and car pooling is the norm as residents reel from the impact of the worsening economic crisis that is compounded by rising fuel prices.
Unleaded gas on Tinian is $3.84 a gallon — 47 cents more than Saipan’s $3.369 a gallon.
Premium gas on Tinian is $3.979 a gallon.
Saipan’s gas price is 10 percent higher and that of Tinian is 25 percent higher than the CNMI’s 11-year-old minimum wage of $3.05 an hour.
“It’s too high,” said a nonresident worker who works at Western Pacific Electrical.
The worker, who asked not to be identified, said the higher the prices of gasoline on Tinian, the more they pay for basic commodities because of the shipping costs associated with bringing them in.
A majority of nonresident workers in Tinian are paid the CNMI’s hourly minimum wage of $3.05 an hour.
Some travel to Saipan to shop to save on costs.
But with the ferry ride no longer available for free, most don’t travel to Saipan as frequently as before.
A local resident who has relatives on Tinian said car pooling is one way to save on gas there.
“They have to do something to reduce the cost. Even here (on Saipan), the gas price is too high,” he said.
Only Mobil supplies fuel on Tinian.
Gas retailers said they cannot lower their oil prices because they get their merchandise from Mobil at a certain set price.
Tourists on Tinian, particularly those from the U.S. mainland, say they find the island’s high gas prices “very surprising.”