Mobil slashes gas prices by 10 cents on Saipan

Saipan motorists got a reprieve from the pump, albeit not as much as they want it to, when Mobil Oil Mariana Islands reduced its pump prices by 10 cents a gallon on Saipan at 3pm yesterday.

Regular unleaded gasoline on Saipan is now $5.059 a gallon, 10 cents down from a record high of $5.159 a gallon but still much higher than pump prices across the United States and its territories.

This means a worker on Saipan earning the minimum wage of $5.05 an hour needs to work an entire hour to be able to buy a gallon of regular gas.

Super unleaded gasoline is also down to $5.379 a gallon, from $5.479 a gallon.

Diesel on Saipan is now $5.419 a gallon, down from $5.519 a gallon.

The last time Mobil and Shell Marianas gas prices went up was in late February.

Pump prices at Shell service stations on Saipan remained unchanged as of press time yesterday. Mobil and Shell have historically mirrored each other’s price changes.

Albina Lizama, a Capital Hill resident, said she’s relieved that gas prices went down at a time when the CNMI is dealing with a lot of crises, including high power rates, work hour cuts, a pension agency that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and an under-funded public hospital.

“But I would be happier if gas prices went down by more than 10 cents. I wish gas price is only $4,” Lizama told Saipan Tribune in an interview while she was buying gas at a Mobil service station in Garapan late yesterday afternoon.

She said every school day, she needs to drive and fetch two of her grandchildren to and from Gregorio T. Camacho Elementary School in San Roque to Capital Hill “because there’s no school bus from Esco’s to GTC.”

“With the 10 cents, my gas could last a little longer,” she added.

Alfredo Valdez, 67, also wishes for gas prices to go down further.

“Life is hard. We need as much cut in our spending as possible,” he said as he was filling up his car with $10 gas at a Mobil station yesterday. Valdez, a resident of Chalan Kanoa, said his $10 gas lasts two days.

Since the start of the year, Saipan motorists have been paying 35 cents more for gas.

Mobil and Shell do not issue advance notices for any gas price change.

Mobil earlier said that prices of gasoline are determined by a number of factors, including changes in the world market wholesale prices of gasoline, regional gasoline supply and demand balance, transportation costs, insurance, local distribution, marketing costs, government regulations, taxes, competitive market forces, and investments in retail stations and distribution terminals.