Saipan gas prices up by 10 cents, again

  Regular unleaded gasoline now costs $4.90 a gallon at Mobil stations after the company raised its prices by 10 cents on Wednesday night, barely three weeks since the last 10-cent increase.

Super unleaded gasoline at Mobil stations is now $5.229 a gallon, also because of a 10-cent hike.

Diesel, however, remains at $5.319 a gallon.

Prices at Shell Marianas service stations remained the same as of yesterday, but the two oil giants usually mirror each other’s price changes.

CNMI gasoline prices, especially those on Rota and Tinian, are the highest among U.S. states and territories. Rota and Tinian gas prices-now up to $6.70 a gallon-are expected to increase some more following the pump price changes on Saipan.

Joy Mallick, a taxi operator and owner, said the additional 10 cents increase will make it harder for his family to make ends meet.

“As a taxi operator, our charges to customers remain the same but we pay more for gasoline. It’s really bad. We don’t have many tourist customers,” Mallick said while buying gasoline at a Mobil service station in Garapan yesterday morning. Mallick is a member of the Saipan City Taxi Association Inc.

Donald Kileleman, a resident of Kagman, said he lost his job only in January and paying 10 cents more for gasoline is too heavy a burden, especially with six children.

“It will definitely affect our household budget. They didn’t even give us warning that they will increase prices again. So that’s 20 cents more since last month. We have to pray that prices will soon go down,” he said.

Joseph Fejeran, of As Lito, said their family has to cut on other expenses and that may be on grocery to make up for the added budget for gasoline.

“Seems like we’re working only to be able to buy gas,” he said while buying $10 gas from a Mobil-Garapan service station.

Saipan’s regular gas of $4.90 a gallon is now closer to the CNMI’s minimum wage of $5.05 an hour.

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.