MOBIL Oil Marianas on Wednesday raised its regular and premium gasoline prices by 15 cents a gallon, and the price of diesel by 40 cents a gallon.
The regular gas price went up to $6.56 a gallon from $6.41 a gallon; the premium gas price rose to $7.01 a gallon from $6.86 a gallon; and the diesel price went up to $7.48 a gallon from $7.08 a gallon. Shell is expected to follow suit.
Tinian Fuel Services had not changed its prices as of 2 p.m. Wednesday but the cashier said they were likely to do so soon. Since the last fuel price hike a few weeks ago, the regular gas price on Tinian was still $8.15 a gallon, and the diesel price was still $9.10 a gallon.
Calvo Enterprises on Rota also had not been notified about a price hike by its suppliers as of 2 p.m., but the cashier said they also expected to raise their prices Thursday, June 16. Their regular gas price was still $7.89 a gallon and diesel was still $10.52 a gallon.
The rising fuel prices are a heavy burden for licensed taxi drivers like him, said Ataur Rahman, 51. He said it is difficult to raise their fare since not a lot of people on island patronize metered taxis.
He said the fare per kilometer is still $2.50 which is what they charged their passengers in the years prior to Covid-19 pandemic when there were still a lot of tourists visiting the island.
Rahman said that aside from purchasing gasoline, legal taxi drivers like him also pay for a taxi operator’s license which expires annually, car insurance and maintenance and a business license, which is also renewable every year.
Rahman said driving his cab is his only source of income. With very few tourists and taxi-riding residents on island, he said it is very hard to survive. Also making their livelihood more difficult are the illegal taxis unfairly competing with them, he said.
“We legal taxi drivers on Saipan have been thinking about bringing our concern to the CNMI government. We want to know if they can allow us to raise our fare, for example, but we just don’t how to approach them,” he added.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that gas prices in the United States “are at record highs. And even when adjusting for inflation, they are on average at levels rarely seen in the last 50 years, including during the energy crisis of the late 1970s.”
The single biggest factor driving the spike now is the price of crude oil, the NYT added.
“How much people end up paying for gas is the result of trading that takes place in a sprawling international market for oil and petroleum products. But like many other facets of the global economy, it comes down to supply and demand — and when the balance between those two forces is disrupted, costs inevitably swing.”
Mobil Oil Marianas on Beach Road in Garapan displays its new prices early Wednesday afternoon.
