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Shell gas price breaks through $3-a-gallon mark
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Posted on Mar 24 2005
For the third time this year, Shell gas stations on Saipan hiked pump prices by 7 cents a gallon, raising new gallon rates to as much as $3-plus.
Motorists gassing up at the stations met the new price increases with critical comments, prompting some Shell staff to explain to them that the adjustments were triggered by international market forces.
“The customers noticed the price adjustments. We had to explain to them it is not our choice, but one dictated by the world market,” said a gas station employee.
Thirty-eight-year-old Miko Moran, an accountant who gasses up his Toyota sedan weekly, said the new round of gas price increases calls for reducing fuel consumption.
“Five dollars [worth of gasoline] hardly moves my car’s fuel gauge indicator,” he said. “We have to be efficient with our gas consumption. If we need to go to several destinations, we have to plan our route and drive at one time if possible.”
In a media statement, Shell Marianas president Phil Stalker attributed the new price adjustment to high prices of petroleum products in Singapore.
“The pricing of crude, gasoline, and diesel in Singapore, where Shell sources product, continues to trade at record levels. We have increased our retail price of regular and premium unleaded gasoline and diesel to keep up with changes in our supply costs,” Stalker said.
Shell raised pump prices by as much as $3.019, particularly for premium gasoline at full-serve rate. Regular gasoline now sells as $2.899 per gallon.
Shell stations pegged self-serve rates for regular and premium gasoline at $2.769 and $2.899, respectively. Diesel now sells at $2.939 per gallon.
The 7-cent gallon price adjustment, Shell’s third this year, resulted in a cumulative price hike of 21 cents a gallon in a span of three months.
Shell first increased pump prices this year last Jan. 28. Less than a month later, on Feb. 22, Shell implemented another upward price adjustment, citing the rising demand for crude oil and refined products in China.
Shell had rolled back pump prices on Saipan by at least four times since November last year for a cumulative gallon price adjustment of about 20 cents, before increasing them for the first time last January.
