Saipan regular gas falls below $5

Saipan’s regular gas fell below the $5-mark after Mobil Oil Mariana Islands reduced its pump prices by another 10 cents a gallon at 3pm yesterday, bringing relief to motorists that are already burdened with high electricity costs and pay cuts.

Mobil’s latest cut brings to 20 cents the total pump price reduction for gasoline and diesel since May 8.

Regular gasoline is now $4.959 a gallon, from $5.059 a gallon, at Mobil service stations. Super unleaded gasoline is now $5.279 a gallon. Diesel, meanwhile, is now $5.319 a gallon.

Shell Marianas service stations’ pump prices remained unchanged late yesterday afternoon but Shell and Mobil always mirror each other’s price changes, so it is expected that Shell will follow suit.

Ramon Lisua, 48, said he’s relieved to see another 10-cent decrease so that his family can stretch its gas budget for their old pickup truck. Every workday, he and his wife have to drive from Kagman 3 where they live to Lower Base, Garapan, As Terlaje and back to Kagman 3 because of the separate locations of the couple’s offices and their children’s schools.

“So the $20 gas we’re putting in now, that’s only good for two days. The 10-cent decrease could give us a few more miles,” Lisua told Saipan Tribune in an interview at a Mobil service station on Beach Road-Garapan yesterday afternoon.

Efren Maralit, 59, was a bit skeptical when asked how he feels about the 10-cent drop in pump price, saying gas prices would pick up in the summer.

“So yes, maybe they brought it down to total 20 cents in the last two weeks but they’d increase it to 25 cents later,” Maralit said as he was buying $6 gas. He said bringing back regular gas on Saipan to $4 would be ideal.

“It should always be much lower than minimum wage,” he added.

The CNMI’s minimum wage is $5.05 an hour.

Other motorists said that while Saipan prices have dropped, those same prices and the prices on Rota and Tinian remain the highest on U.S. soil.

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.

By factoring in the two price reductions since May 8, Saipan motorists have been paying 25 cents more for gas since the start of the year.

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