The Mobil service station on Beach Road in Garapan displays its prices on Thursday.
THE prices of gasoline are down by 10 cents and diesel by 20 cents on Saipan.
Mobil Oil Marianas reduced its prices on Thursday while Shell Marianas followed suit on Friday.
The regular gas price on Saipan went down to $4.96 a gallon from $5.06 a gallon; premium gas price, to $5.41 a gallon from $5.51 a gallon; and diesel price to $6.08 a gallon from $6.28 a gallon.
Tinian Fuel Services also reduced its prices on Thursday night. The regular gas price on Tinian went down to $6.74 a gallon from $6.84 a gallon, and the diesel price to $7.99 a gallon from $8.19 a gallon.
On Rota, the regular gasoline price is $6.54 a gallon and the diesel price is $10.07 a gallon. These prices are the result of the price rollback on Nov. 26.
Calvo Enterprises’ Dana Calvo said they will not adjust the prices based on Thursday’s roll back until their new supply arrives. She said they usually get their delivery on Monday, Wednesday and Friday or depending on the amount of supply they still have.
Rota businessman Pete Dela Cruz said it is good news that fuel prices have been going down over the last few weeks. But he said the fuel prices on Rota are still “very much higher” than the prices on Saipan.
Dela Cruz said he knows that the tanker operators delivering fuel to Saipan are charged wharfage fees, which he understands are added to the price of fuel on Saipan. But on Rota, he said the tanker does not pay wharfage fees because the fuel is discharged through a floating hose into Mobil’s depot which is next to Rota harbor.
He said he has raised this issue before. The fuel prices on Rota are something that the government should look into, he added.
According to Reuters, “Oil settled lower for a fifth straight session on Thursday as traders shrugged off the closure of a major Canada-to-U.S. crude pipeline, focusing instead on concerns that global economic slowdowns would slash fuel demand.”
“The energy markets are weighed down by fears of an economic slowdown, weakening fuel demand amid the prospect of more U.S. interest rate hikes, with the Federal Reserve widely expected to raise interest rates by 50 basis points next week,” Reuters reported.
