Jamaica Gas Prices

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.

Jamaican motorist can breathe a little sigh of relief as the ex-refinery price of 87 and 90 Octane decreased by $0.27 while the price for Diesel increased by $0.05 . The decreases still does not bring the prices below those ex-refinery prices of two weeks ago but right now any decrease is a welcome one.

Diesel most expensive fuel

Diesel is not the highest price fuel of the three used by Jamaican motorist. This is mark change from a how thing use to be. Diesel was once touted as the cheaper alternative fuel and Jamaicans were once encouraged to look at purchasing Diesel-powered vehicles. Despite the increase the fuel economy of Diesel engines still make those vehicles an attractive alternative.

On the gas prices scene, the thing that Jamaican motorists will have to look out for are the service stations that decide to actually reduce the prices and how quickly they will do so.

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:

• Weak and Weaking U.S. Economy
• Less likely demand than predicted as a result of the point above
• Profit Taking
• Defused Iran-U.S. tensions
• End of Oil Bubble?

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?”