10-cent rollback on gasoline

After a series of price increases in the last few months, Shell rolled back the pump prices of its gasoline by 10 cents a gallon yesterday afternoon, while Mobil announced that it would implement a similar rollback effective midnight last night.

Shell’s new prices took effect at 3pm yesterday.

Both companies claimed concern for customers after they increased pump prices several times, which made the retail price of gasoline as high as over $3 per gallon.

Shell’s new gallon prices for gasoline are now slightly below $3, except for diesel, which sells at $3.009 per gallon. Full-serve gallon rates of regular and premium gasoline went down slightly to $2.869 and $2.989, respectively; the self-serve rates are $2.739 and $2.869 respectively. The price of diesel remains at $3.009 at full-serve rate.

Mobil’s full-serve gallon rate for unleaded and super unleaded gasoline would become $2.909 and $3.029; self-serve would slide to $2.739 and $2.869, respectively. The prices of diesel at full-serve and self-serve rates remain at $3.029 and $2.979.

Shell Guam president Phil Stalker attributed the price rollback to easing of market forces.

“The pricing of crude and some refined products in Singapore have recently eased, enabling Shell to reduce its price for regular and premium gasoline by $0.10 [10 cents] per gallon,” Stalker stated in a media release.

“We are mindful of the impact of recent increases on our customers and therefore want to make the lower price effective as soon as possible,” he added.

While Mobil did not issue media releases to the local media when it hiked gas prices, it released one yesterday, announcing the price rollback. Mobil’s media release said the company would continue to monitor product costs, noting market volatility over the last three months.

“With recent softening of regional gas prices, we are passing on the savings to our customers,” said Mobil Oil Mariana Islands president Jeff Borja.

The price rollback is Shell and Mobil’s first this year, after implementing consecutive price increases.

Shell hiked gas prices by 7 cents a gallon four times—one each for every month in 2005—for a cumulative price adjustment of 28 cents per gallon, before dropping prices by 10 cents yesterday. It was not clear as to how many times Mobil implemented price adjustments before last midnight’s decrease, but some of its products notably bear higher prices than those of Shell.

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. Mobil had also rolled back prices late last year.