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Gas nears $7 mark
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Posted on Jun 17 2022
Fuel continues to grow more expensive, with local oil companies raising their prices by another 15 cents late last Wednesday. (KIMBERLY B. ESMORES)
With fuel prices now at $6.56, Saipan is steadily creeping toward the $7 mark, following back-to-back fuel increases in the past month alone.
Late Wednesday afternoon, oil companies on Saipan raised their prices again by another 15 cents. Both Mobil Oil Marianas and Shell Marianas now charge $6.56 per gallon for their regular fuel from $6.41 per gallon. Mobil’s Supreme Fuel is now $7.01 while diesel also went up, with its price now at $7.48.
Oil companies have been raising their prices by 15-cent increments since April. Prior to Wednesday’s increase, oil companies across Saipan raised prices by 15 cents in the first week of June. Before that, they went up by 15 cents on May 20.
The steepest gas price increase the CNMI has seen in the past few months was back on April 20, when local oil companies increased their prices by 20 cents, bringing regular fuel prices up to $5.96 a gallon.
The CNMI saw its first fuel increase of the year back on Jan. 5, when local oil companies raised prices of regular fuel to $4.96, followed by a string of increases that reached an all-time-high of $6.06 per gallon of regular fuel in March.
The CNMI then finally saw its first gas rollback in mid-March, with oil companies bringing regular fuel down to $5.86. The rollback was followed by yet another increase at the end of March with fuel going back up to $6.01.
A local gas attendant believes that, if the CNMI continues to follow this trend, fuel could possibly surpass the $7 mark sometime in July.
“We don’t know when increases or rollbacks happen. We usually just get word on the day of. However, at this rate, if gas continues to rise 15 cents every other week, we could go past that $7 mark somewhere in July,” she said.
A local student who just got her driver’s license said it seems like a bad time to be driving.
“I just got my license like a few months ago and there’s been back-to-back fuel increase. I think this is the worst time to be driving because fuel is very costly right now,” she said.
