All petroleum prices to increase Thursday
The days of gas under a buck are numbered

Media release

Conception Bay South, NL, March 24, 2009- Consumers in Newfoundland and Labrador will see another increase in petroleum product prices again this week as commodity figures reflect the rising price of crude oil.

Possible interruption to prices for next week
According to George Murphy of the Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices, those numbers that are showing themselves this week are not substantial, but the increase in spot prices in the last couple of days in particular has him worried. The last two business days are reflecting a possible interruption to pricing for all fuel products if the related commodity prices stay high for the rest of the week leading up to next Tuesday’s business day. While not a guarantee that interruption to pricing will occur, the latest numbers are within the guides of the requirements. “I am seeing heating/stove oil spot prices that have increased by 36 cents a US gallon, gasoline spot prices that have 31 cents and diesel by 36 cents a gallon as well. Yesterday, heating and stove oil spot prices hit 48.12 cents a litre and I’m showing an average of 42.89 cents over the last two weeks. If we see that figure of 48 cents a litre hold up over the next couple of days, we could be looking at an interruption scenario of over five cents a litre for next Thursday. Diesel shows the same scenario adding the same and gasoline adding an additional four cents a litre”, said Murphy.

Numbers for this Thursday
“For Thursday, gasoline shows just an added 8/10ths of a cent increase, heating/stove oils show 1.88 cents a litre up and diesel to increase by 2.1 cents a litre. At the same time, we’ve seen crude oil increase from $42.33 US a barrel to today’s close of $53.48 a barrel, numbers that don’t reflect the reality in increasing spot prices for crude oils related, refined commodities.”

“The days may be numbered for gasoline under a buck a litre in Newfoundland and Labrador. While it was good while it lasted Big Oil should understand that it is higher fuel prices that are hindering any economic recovery. We’re better off helping the economy recover by keeping energy cheap to the consumer and business. If we see energy prices increase again, we’re going to see added surcharges to consumables and another artificial increase to inflation. All this is taking away disposable income to the economy.”

Market highlights

· Stove and heating oil prices increase over the last two weeks from $1.11 a US Gallon to $1.48 a gallon US.
· Diesel prices increase from $1.12 to $$1.48 a US gallon.
· Gasoline increases from $1.15 a US gallon to $1.43 a gallon.
· The Canadian dollar increases in value against the US dollar from $1.2807 on March 11th to today’s $1.2262, the last day of this regulation period.
· Gasoline inventories show a 3.2 million barrel increase and demand also increases 1.1 per cent over last years figures.
· Distillate supplies show an increase in supply while demand for the same drops by 9.3 per cent. Jet fuel demand also drops by 6.4 per cent against lat years figures.
· Refiner capacity remains low at just a hair above 82 per cent.


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For more information, contact;

George Murphy
Group researcher/Member
Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices