MOBIL Oil Marianas on Saipan raised its gas prices by 15 cents, but rolled down the diesel price by 10 cents at around 3 p.m. Thursday. Its regular gas price went up to $6.26 a gallon from $6.11 a gallon while the premium gas price went up to $6.71 a gallon from $6.56 a gallon.
Mobil Oil Marianas Middle Road-Garapan displays its new prices at around 3 p.m. Thursday.
The diesel price went down to $6.88 a gallon from $6.98 a gallon.
Shell is expected to follow suit.
On Tinian, the price of regular gas was still $7.85 a gallon and diesel was still $8.70 a gallon. Tinian Fuel Services had not changed its prices as of 3:45 p.m. Thursday.
On Rota, Calvo Enterprises had also not raised its prices as of late Thursday afternoon. Its regular gas price was still $7.59 a gallon and the diesel price was still $10.52 a gallon.
But Calvo Enterprises said it may change its prices Friday.
Tinian fisherman Boni Gonzales watches as a gas attendant fills his 5-gallon containers with gasoline at the Mobil Oil Marianas on Middle Road in Garapan Thursday.
A fisherman from Tinian, Boni Gonzales, said he and other fishermen from the neighboring island purchase their fuel on Saipan.
He said they sail to Saipan, dock their fishing boats at Smiling Cove Marina, rent or borrow a vehicle from friends and head to a gas station to fill up their containers before sailing back to Tinian.
Gonzales said they have been doing this since fuel prices have increased in the last several months.
His son Benny said they usually spend about $200 worth of gasoline for their boat whenever they fish around Tinian.
Because of the recent gas price increases, they are struggling to break even, he said.
In Washington, D.C., the Hill has reported that prices at the gas pump “are rising yet again as refiners turn to producing jet fuel and diesel instead of gasoline, and as demand jumps ahead of the summer driving season.”
“Prices across the country were already high before the most recent jumps,” the Hill stated. “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine hit oil markets and global gas prices hard, driving up the price at the pump as governments turned away energy supplies from Moscow. But prices are now going higher….”
