The two oil firms are selling regular gasoline on Saipan at $4.449 a gallon and premium at $4.59.
Torres wants to know why the two increased their prices when they were still selling supplies purchased before the price of crude oil hit over $126 a barrel.
“These price increases are not for fuel purchased at a higher rate,” Torres, R-Saipan, told Fitial in a letter on Thursday. “These increases are…fed by the knowledge that a)they have gotten away with it for years, and b) that they have no competitors to keep their intra-company price fixing schemes honest via legitimate price competition.”
He added, “The fuel sitting in their storage tanks was already purchased at a set price, delivered here at a set cost and pumped into their respective tanks for storage prior to delivery to their company-owned and other retail outlets.”
Torres said the Fitial administration should review anti-gouging laws to reduce the public’s burden.
The oil firms previously told this newspaper their prices are dictated by market prices in Singapore where they get their fuel.
