(Kaieteur News) – The Guyana Oil Company Limited (Guyoil) on Saturday increased fuel prices by as much as 13% as the war in the Middle East continues to affect global supplies.
This newspaper confirmed that the cost per litre of gasoline jumped from $228 to $258- forcing consumers to pay an additional $30 more for an already expensive commodity. Diesel prices also climbed significantly from $278 to $318.
Guyana Oil Company
Other service stations also upped their prices due to the strain in supply. Kaieteur News visited Mobil service stations which were retailing gasoline at $265 and diesel at $297.
A Rubis service agent told this newspaper on Saturday afternoon that there has not been any increases yet to prices; as such gasoline was being retailed at $260 and diesel at $290 per litre. The last major fuel price increase was recorded across the country in March this year when products at GUYOIL climbed by 12%. It was reported that President Irfaan Ali during an address at the 136th Annual General Meeting of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) highlighted financial challenges being experienced by GUYOIL as a result of the ongoing Middle East conflict.
Fuel prices have increased at Rubis Service stations across the country.
He explained that the oil company at the time was operating at a deficit and will need to at least break even to help stabilise the market. The price of petroleum products has climbed due to the war in Iran. On February 28, the state media in Iran confirmed that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed at his office in the Israeli-U.S. attacks on Iran.
Al Jazeera reported that Iran’s counterattacks triggered air-defence interceptions in several countries where airbases with U.S. assets are hosted, including Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Since then, cargo ships, mainly oil and gas tankers, have been blocked from transiting the strait of Hormuz by the Israeli-U.S. war against Iran after Tehran closed the key maritime passage.
The shortage of fuel supply is likely to continue, thereby affecting global prices as several oil and gas facilities have been bombed which can take years to be rebuilt.
Mobil Service stations like the other outlets have increased fuel prices.
Recently, President Ali underscored Guyana’s challenge as an oil producing nation exporting approximately 900,000 but still vulnerable to external shocks as the nation lacks critical infrastructure to refine its crude oil.
“We produce crude oil, but we import all refined oil, our gasoline and everything. So, we import back all the price differentials. Since the war, you know what has been happening,” he noted.
“We cannot have crude oil and don’t have security of supply, one and security brings with it stability and then give us some shield against shocks that are currently existing,” Ali noted, further disclosing that there are interests in the construction of an oil refinery in Guyana. “We’re hoping that we can have investment in that refinery,” he added. Discussions over an oil refinery in Guyana have been ongoing for years however there have been no material movement in this direction with the country only moving to sign Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) to date.
Source: Kaieteur News
