Gasoline prices at the pump too high? : Vigilance is required
The quebecois motorists are entitled to ask why the price of regular gasoline at the pump have climbed beyond 145 cents / liter (even at 149 cents / liter) across Quebec Friday, September 12 in after- noon to remain very high for this time.
Even if a price increase at the pump was foreseeable at this time due to higher acquisition costs of regular gasoline, no reason could be advanced from the industry take the road to justify such an increase, according to CAA-Quebec!
CAA-Quebec sees rather an increase that was too fast and that proves unjustified since, although concerns were visible in the stock market on Friday, it was at this moment impossible to know if Hurricane Ike would have negative repercussions on the extraction and refining of oil realized in the Texas area of the Gulf of Mexico.
This advance has enabled the owners of gas stations to collect additional sums thanks margins in detail too high, to the detriment of motorists.
For example, the realistic price of regular gasoline was 141.6 cents / liter over the weekend in Montreal. With prices at the pump to 149 cents / liter margin to detail was 12.6 cents / liter excluding taxes for consumption!
In Quebec, the realistic price was 140.9 cents / liter over the weekend. With prices at the pump 145.4 cents / liter margin to detail was 10.4 cents / liter excluding taxes for consumption!
We now know that Hurricane Ike to a tropical storm, seems to have done a lot less damage than expected. The current supply costs are a higher, but this increase should not continue as refined gasoline on the NYMEX is already in sharp decline.
According to CAA-Quebec, the high prices at the pump that is being seen is partly explained by a refining margin very high (24.8 cents / liter 15 September 2008 compared to 8.5 cents / liter 3 January 2008) and a margin too high detail.
CAA-Quebec wishes to recall that it continues to monitor the situation very closely, including making public its realistic daily gas prices for the 17 administrative regions of Quebec on its microsite Gasoline: the realistic price according to CAA-Quebec . The organization will not hesitate to denounce the continued price pump unjustly students.
Note: Generally, the price of crude oil and refined gasoline prices fluctuate in parallel. However, it is not unusual to see these two petroleum indicators take opposite directions as is currently the case. Thus, while the value of crude continues its bearish movement (a fall of 30% since its peak in mid-July), gasoline refined following a bullish trajectory due to fears of supply conditions caused by the temporary closure and the risk of breakage of refineries in the path of hurricanes that hit the southern United States over the last few days.
