Oil remains elevated

An increase coming for gasoline prices

Media release

Conception Bay South, NL, March 29, 2011- It's not often that George Murphy's numbers are wrong, but he's hoping that they are this time. Numbers are showing that consumers could see an additional 2.6 cents a litre up on gasoline prices for this week when the PUB adjusts prices this coming Thursday.

"Oil prices remained elevated this week after last week's modest retreat, gaining almost three bucks a barrel US, hitting a new record high since September of '08. We're right back to where we left off with gasoline prices edging upwards and heating oils remaining unaffordable to most. Something has to give. Consumers are going to have to start to let their wallets do the talking." Murphy said.

"Numbers show just a 9/100ths of a cent drop to heating and stove oils, a 4/10ths of a cent drop to diesel prices and a 2.6 cent a litre increase on the way for gasoline. The troubling thing about all this is that, after last weeks data, there was still a demand for gasoline and that helped support the high price. In spite of the rising price, inventories of gasoline continue to drop.

"Heating and stove oils are still showing signs that prices will not be coming down anytime soon. With oil prices up again because of demand and the world geo-political situation, I expect that they will remain high for some time to come. The provincial treasury will continue to reap the benefits of that while consumers will have to collectively start to impact inventories and demand itself. Right now, unless we see economic collapse or more banking problems out of the European Union, we're probably not going to see any relief in the interim".

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For more information, contact;

George Murphy

Group researcher/Member

Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices