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Gas price —once again goes up, while fuels used by ASPA boilers drop by 2¢

Consumers will see another increase in the price of gasoline while prices for other petroleum products in the territory will be reduced when the new maximum allowable price (MAP),or the wholesale price is released tomorrow by the ASG Office of Petroleum Management (OPM).

When the MAP was released on Feb. 1, the hike in gasoline was 18 cents while other petroleum products increased between 17 cents and 15 cents per gallon.

Effective tomorrow (Feb. 16), the new MAP for gasoline is $3.89, an increase of four cents per gallon, said Sione Kava, the petroleum officer with OPM. He also pointed out that the hike in gasoline is due to demand.

“The current trend shows an increase in the use of gasoline due to more driving, prompting the demand for this petroleum,” he told Samoa News yesterday. He also said that the average retail price for gasoline as of early this week is around $4.25 per gallon.

The Saipan Tribune newspaper reported over the weekend that retail prices in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands runs between $5.85 and $6.70 on the islands of Rota and Tinian while in the capital of Saipan, it’s between $4.90 and $5.31 per gallon. It also reports that Guam’s price is $4.73 per gallon.

The website, hawaiigasprices.com reported yesterday that the average in Hawai’i was $4.17, while the national average was $3.48, with the price of crude oil just above $100 a barrel. The website, which provides the most up to date gas price in the Aloha State, also reported that there were several gas stations in Hawai’i selling gas for less than $4.03 per gallon as of yesterday.

Back to the “Motu o Fiafiaga”— jet fuel and kerosene prices effective tomorrow, are close to $3.83 per gallon, a decrease of 3 cents per gallon, said Kava.

The new MAP has road diesel at $4.13 per gallon; boilers/generators (used by the Tafuna Power plant) at $3.81 per gallon; commercial fishing vessel diesel at $3.60 per gallon and other marine diesel at $3.73 — a decrease of about two cents, said Kava.

Regarding the Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD), which is used for the eleven new generators at the American Samoa Power Authority’s temporary power generation system (TPGS)  in Satala, the new MAP for boilers/generator fuel is $3.85 per gallon while ULSD road diesel (used by Education Department school buses) is $4.16 per gallon — also a decrease of two cents per gallon, said Kava.