There was a slight increase in the ex-refinery prices announced by PetroJam this week. The prices of 87 Octane and 90 Octane increased by $0.38 while the price of Diesel increased by $0.33.
This was expected as despite the fact that there was some retreat in Oil Prices this week, a barrel of oil still sells for over US$90 per barrel.
Motorist in Jamaica will be thankful for the retreat and will be hoping reduced prices soon.
This week Oil Prices has gone into somewhat of a retreat falling as low as $90.50 for a barrel of Oil although it pushed back to the $91+ region late Tuesday afternoon.
The analyst as usual are divided on the reasons but have highlighted the following:
A Washington Times article, Oil Prices retreat from $100, reports, “Iran has handed over blueprints key to its nuclear program, meeting a central United Nations demand and potentially defusing the country’s standoff with the West.” This is good news.
In a Business week article, End of the Oil Bubble?, analysts question whether or not much of the increase was on based on ‘idle speculation’. A quote in the article attributed to one Fadel Gheit, senior energy analyst for Oppenheimer Holdings (OPY), says “Oil prices have risen ridiculously high ridiculously fast because of speculation,” and “It has nothing to do with fundamentals. It’s a bubble, and the question is not if it’ll burst—it’s when?”