Jamaica Gas Prices

A shortage of E10, seems to be affecting the Jamaican Petroleum trade and fustrating tanker drivers, services stations and motorists. E10 was official introduced to the Jamaican Market on November 1, 2008  a suggested price roughly JM $2 cheaper than unleaded 87.  On Monday, November 24, 2008, fire struck and destroyed the ethanol cooling tower at PetroJam Refinery. This forced the goverment of Jamaica go overseas for ethanol to power the local trade. It is understood that by February, the cooling tower should be back in operation. In the meanwhile it appears a shortage has developed.

In the week ending December 20, 2008, Jamaica’s Minister of Energy, Clive Mullings, acknowledge that there was a shortage of the product due most in part to the strong demand of E10.  According to one report, the Minister said that, with some 62 service stations providing the fuel, demand has grown to as much as 8,000 barrels per week far exceeding expectations. President of the Jamaica Gasoline Retailers Association, Trevor Barnes, while agreeing that there was a strong demand, pointed fingers at the inadequate loading bay facilities at the refinery and urged the MInister to do something about the matter.

On December 22, 2008, Radio Jamaica reported that there were problems with a malfunctioning pump that at PetroJam that left tanker drivers fuming unable to get E10 after waiting hours. Hopefully all the issues wil be resolved soon as promised by the energy minister in a Gleaner/Power 106 news report of December 23, 2008.

In that news item, Mr Mullings says Petrojam is not experiencing a supply problem, but a problem with the pace at which the fuel is being loaded. He says the ministry has installed a larger motor and has also corrected the problems, which have led to the delays.

We now will wait and see.

Sources: 

• E10 supply hits snag
• Shortage of E10 gasoline to be alleviated
• Mullings promises to eliminate E10 shortage

On the December 24, 2008, the Gleaner’s letter of the day raised concerns about PetroJam pricing policy. Today another writer join the call in his peice, writing to the editor. Here is a quote..

The present management of Petrojam is a hangover of the past government and has not changed its policies. The public needs a relief from high prices and Mullings should not forget that he can return from whence he came. The Government should realise that it is their inaction on important issues like gas prices why people are becoming so turned off from them.

You can read the rest of the article here…  http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20081229/letters/letters4.html

You can read the related post here
http://www.jamaicagasprices.com.jm/blog/2008/12/24/petrojam-pricing-policy-questioned/

Remember you can also follow this discussion in the forum.http://jamaicagasprices.com.jm/forum/index.php?topic=15.0

Again we would like to take this opportunity to wish you all  the best for the new year.

The steady-sharp reduction in the price of OIL on the world market has not affected the price of gasoline to the Jamaican consumers as many would have expected. There has been little explanation from PetroJam. In today’s Gleaner of December 24, 2008, the letter of the day is entitled, “Peculiar PetroJam pricing policy”. Here is a quote

Petrojam has not explained to the motoring public why oil is going down on the world market and our ex-refinery prices are not anywhere in line with that trend. I’ll give a few examples.

Since early July, the price of a barrel of oil has fallen by 68 per cent (using the World Trade Index (WTI) prices (same as the so-called ‘Gulf Reference Price’ by Petrojam)) from US$141.06 on July 1 to US$43.84 on December 16 this year). Now Petrojam’s ex-refinery price for the following selected products have fallen from the peak on July 17 to the last listing on December 18.

You can read the rest at:
 http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20081224/letters/letters1.html

It is time that we as Jamaican consumers act, share information on the best prices and hold suppliers to a higher standard. 

You can follow the discussion on this issue at this link:
http://jamaicagasprices.com.jm/forum/index.php?topic=15.0 

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all  happy holidays and all the best for the new year.

As usual the Jamaica Gas Prices team continue to work to improve the site little by little. Firstly let me apologise for the slow updates, we am working to improve this.

E10 data available
This week we add the E10 average, high, low prices to the reports page, see http://jamaicagasprices.com.jm/reports.php. With more and more stations now carrying E10 this information becomes more useful.

You can find the stations carrying E10 here.

We would also remind you to visit the other areas of the site including the Forum.

There is a very interesting topic in the forum, “Is Petrojam taking us for a ride?” which makes good reading.

As usual we encourage you to keep submitting gas prices and letting your friends know about this site. Thanks to those who tirelessly continue to supply the gas prices.

Roleli