No dodging the bullet this week...
Gasoline prices to take a swipe at consumers this week

Media release

Conception Bay South, NL, June 17, 2008 – Consumers in the province will be taking another hit in the pocketbook this week as prices for gasoline are expected to take a 5.5 cent a litre increase on Thursday, that’s from George Murphy, group researcher and a member of the Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices.

What will consumers see?
“Twelve days of data out of a possible fourteen needed show that prices will jump this week by 5.5 cents per litre at the pumps. It’s not going to be any significant difference, the other two days. The numbers will be close to what we have. While we didn’t get it on the chin last week, we know we’re going to get it this week and this one will hurt. I have a number for heating and stove oils but, I’m not that trusting in the number until I see what the PUB will do this week. I’m showing an upwards move but I want to see if there’s any redress back to what I traditionally had before the numbers went out of whack last week. I never changed my system of measure for the last ten years yet, the numbers went way out of the traditional for the past summers’ measurement so, I don’t want to make a prediction until I see what the PUB moves the figures by. I will tell you though, that the heating and stove oil numbers show ‘up’. Is there a conspiracy against what I do? I don’t know. Someone else will have to answer that,” said Murphy.

Marine Atlantic increases rates
We told you all about a month ago that Marine Atlantic would soon have to adjust rates simply because of the move in distillates and oil pricing but, a conversation I had with Marine Atlantic staff some time ago tells me that the increases may not be necessary if the company does one of two things; namely ask Ottawa to absorb the increases outside of it’s budget or do the environmentally positive thing and slow down the boat by a knot or two. While Ottawa may not do the right thing, the possibility that slowing down the crossing on the Gulf by a knot or two would save untold tons of fuel that is leading to the fuel surcharges being added to the price of a ticket. The sources from Marine Atlantic tell me that slowing down the boat just a little may be able to help the company prevent passing on the hike to the price of the crossing. I’m told that, if they slow the ferry crossing by a knot to conserve fuel, it would add an extra fifteen minutes to the Gulf passage. Can this be true? What has Marine Atlantic done in regards to fuel conservation measures? It also begs the question, is the provincial government getting ready to hit the taxpayer with the same thing here for ferry services?

Inventories take a beating
The news out of the Energy Information Administration last week may have been a little bullish in the extreme but the markets still traded on a downturn in crude inventories never-the-less. “Here we are with something in the order of nine million more barrels of gasoline in the inventory but we see a draw-down in crude oils because of ‘anticipated’ demand. Here we are looking at a drop in consumer demand for gasoline by 1.3 per cent but we still see active trading on anticipated heavy consumer demand. I simply don’t get how these guys do it and the markets get away with it. It’s all bad news in spite of all the good news out there.”

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For more information, contact;

George Murphy
Group researcher/Member
Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices
gasprices@hotmail.com

P.S I'll update the numbers on a daily basis as the info becomes available but, i don't anticipate much change in them.