Distillates drop

Gasoline mostly steady

Media release

Conception bay south, NL, November 29, 2011- Consumers in Newfoundland and Labrador won’t see too much change with gasoline prices this week. That’s according to George Murphy of the Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices.

The numbers

“Oil prices may be up this week, but it’s not showing too readily with gasoline numbers even though the number is up just slightly”. Murphy said. “Gasoline is showing up by just 6/10ths of a cent a litre, while the distillate fuels are down. Diesel is showing down by 1.7 cents a litre with heating and stove oils also down by 1.5 cents on a litre.”

“There’s still a lot of volatility in the markets. Even though we witnessed a few signs of economic improvement with Black Friday sales showing new records, we’re also seeing signs for next week, showing the opposite with the chance for more European Union countries like Belgium and France facing the possibility of a downgrade in credit ratings that could be the first signals to higher international interest rates and a world economic slowdown. It’s absolutely terrifying out there.”

PPO offices in Grand Falls-Winsor close

The Petroleum Pricing Office in Grand Falls-Winsor has closed with the realization from the PUB that improvements in technology have made the offices there redundant. Four jobs have been lost in the transition to the work now being done in the St. John’s offices of the Board, but, from what I am told, the former staff of the offices, while on contractual work for the PUB, have all been looked after. “It may be a necessary loss to technology. I know that I have been doing my own work with the numbers for fourteen years now, and I guess the PUB realized the job could be done in St. John’s without the added expense to the consumer. Don’t look for any big drops in prices as a result of the closure however. The total cost of regulation in this province only added another .0007 of a cent to fuel prices in the first place. I wish the laid- off workers the best in their future endeavors.”

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For more information, contact;

George Murphy

Group researcher/Member

Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices