Financial crisis deepens, recession fears grow
Prices for petroleum products to drop on Thursday

Media release

Conception bay South, NL, October 6, 2008- The price for oil continues to drop in concert with the ongoing financial crisis worldwide and that will result in some pricing relief to consumers this week, that’s according to George Murphy, group researcher for the Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices.

“While there is a strategic withdrawal from the commodities markets, traders have also been pulling out of the oil markets and that means a drop in the value of crude oil and its related refined products. Thirteen days data out of fourteen are now showing that gasoline pricing will drop by close to six cents a litre on midnight Wednesday,” said Murphy.

“Heating and stove oils are projected to drop by close on 2.2 cents per litre while, diesel pricing is forecast to drop by 1.7 cents per litre. I expect that, in the next couple of weeks, if the economic slowdown really kicks in, then diesel users will start to see some more solid drops, more substantial that we have been seeing as of late. As heating and stove oils are also part of the same distillate group of fuels, we’re hopeful that this may carry over to bring further relief to heating oil users.

“We have noticed that the Canadian dollar has lost a lot of ground against the US greenback in recent days, losing something in the order of seven cents against what it was two weeks ago. That alone has cost the consumer at least a nickel against the drop we are seeing. We should be looking at eleven cents down at the pumps. The drop in the dollar has also cost Canadian consumers as much, if not more, and we have no recognition that we have a problem with the Canadian economy. We’re told that the economic fundamentals are strong. We have the proof here that they are not. Some leaders really need to get their head out of the sand.

“We know that there still should be an ongoing concern that OPEC will step in and start to support the price of oil. I would be deeply concerned with winter heating oil pricing if there are a round of cuts. Any support of oil pricing at this juncture now means trouble for the Canadian consumer with the dollar slipping as it is.

“The real news this week in oil doesn’t come from the facts of Nigerian violence or ongoing promises of supply disruptions. Nor does it come from the fact that inventories of gasoline and crude oil improved. It comes from the fact that traders artificially inflated the price of oil in the first place and now, with the collapse of the financial markets and the promise of recession coming from the major Canadian banks, everyone is going to get burned. We may be seeing some price relief but it is far under what the markets should be really doing here. The failure to support the Canadian dollar at this time of crisis is the recognition that Canada is too reliant on one industry, that being oil.”


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UPDATE: All data in now shows 2.43 down on heating/stove oils, 2.0 down on diesel and 6.3 down on gasoline, all by the litre of course!


For more information, contact;


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

Numbers show prices increasing
Prices well ahead of last year
News release

St. John’s, NL, October 23, 2007 – Increases in heating, stove oils as well as gasoline are to be expected in the coming days but, although the numbers in the increases are small, they are hiding an underlying truth; That consumers are continuing to be hurt by increasing prices.

“For twelve days out of a possible fourteen days, heating and stove oils are showing an increase of 9/10ths of a cent while gasoline is showing an increase of 1.2 cents a litre,” that’s according to George Murphy, group researcher and member of the Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices. “It’s not a huge increase but it still is indicative of the prediction last week that we’ve hit the low point in spots and that prices would be moving up to the consumer.

“The numbers for this year are well ahead of last year. Heating and stove oil spot prices are now 12 cents a litre higher for the same time period while gasoline spots are that same 12 cents higher. The basic cost of heating and stove oils would now be unaffordable for lower income earners if it weren’t for one fact; the performance of the Canadian dollar. Consumers would be paying upwards of another 11 cents a litre more than what they are seeing now if the dollar had to hold the same value as last year. Any slide in the dollar now could cost the consumer this winter.

“The international situation remains volatile. If Turkey invades the Kurdish territories in Northern Iraq, we could see a disruption in crude supply. A lot of that comes to the US eastern seaboard, Eastern Canada and Europe. While there might be an ample supply right now, the promise of violence in a chief export area of Turkey may possibly turn into a worldwide supply disruption and that means rising pricing of all petroleum products. We still caution the consumer to fill the heating oil tanks in case we run into the world situation in the coming days.

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For more information, contact;

George Murphy
Group researcher/Member

gasprices@hotmail.com