Shell follows Mobil’s 10-cent hike

The cost of fuel is up again, thanks to a 10-cent hike the past two days from the two giant oil companies that operate gas stations on Saipan.

A day after Mobil raised the price of gas by 10 cents, Shell mirrored the increase at 2pm yesterday.

Regular unleaded gasoline at Shell and Mobil service stations on Saipan is now $4.759 a gallon, which is not far from the CNMI’s current minimum wage of $5.05 an hour. Super unleaded gasoline now costs $5.09 a gallon, while diesel is now $5.219 a gallon.

Attendants of both gasoline vendors said that motorists were surprised, and a few were irritated, after finding out that gas prices went up Tuesday and Wednesday.

One attendant said that when they were changing the price on their signage, some passing motorists were honking their horns, thinking that it was for a price decrease.

One such motorist was Jerry Soriano, deliveryman for Marianas Water and Ice. He said he was expecting the price of gas to decrease, only to find out yesterday afternoon that the prices went up 10 cents a gallon.

He said he feels bad for his employer as their gas expense will have to go up. Soriano said they couldn’t pass on the increase to their consumers because of stiff price competition in the water delivery business.

Soriano said he normally spends $15 a day for gas, but with the 10-cent increase he is expecting that to go up to $17.

A 50-year-old father of four from As Matuis, meanwhile, is dismayed with the oil companies’ quick trigger when it comes to price increases.

“They’re very fast to put up the price but very slow in marking it down. They waited for three weeks to drop the price when the worldwide prices were down but not even a month after the decrease, here they go again hiking the price,” he said.

Saipan City Taxi owner Rabby Syed, for his part, called on the government to help regulate oil companies in the CNMI. He said Mobil and Shell should answer to the government and the public why the price of fuel is rising.

Syed, who operates a fleet of 20 taxicabs, said his company spends as much as $10,000 a month on fuel cost alone, even before the latest gas price increase.

While Saipan gas prices are still among the highest in the United States, it is still far less than what an average motorist on Rota and Tinian pay for fuel as added shipping cost and the relatively small population on the two islands combine to boost prices.

The price of crude oil worldwide now hovers near $98 a barrel following a drop in U.S. crude supply.

Retail pump prices are affected by a combination of factors, which include internationally traded wholesale prices, operating and capital cost, distribution costs, taxes and duties, currency exchange rates, and market competition.