April 25, 2001 — With gasoline prices increasing on the mainland, it could just be a matter of time before prices in the territory see a spike.
In the past two weeks, the price of gas on the mainland has increased about 13 cents, despite the fact that oil prices haven’t gone up. Locally, one person on St. Thomas, who asked not to be identified, said that Texaco Caribbean Inc. last Thursday increased prices of the regular and premium gas it supplies to dealers by 4 cents. He also noted, however, that the majority of Texaco dealers have yet to pass the increase on to customers.
"I really think we will see more increases as soon as the prices in the U.S. have increased by 13 cents . . . and we have only seen this increase so far," he said. "The dealers (Texaco and Esso) will have to increase soon."
Crude oil futures rose Monday following the surge in gasoline prices and signals that OPEC would not increase production anytime soon.
Alex Moorhead, a vice president at local oil refiner Hovensa, said he couldn’t discuss wholesale gas prices on St. Thomas. He did say that Hovensa hasn’t raised its wholesale price of gas since February, when the company increased the cost of a gallon of gas by 3 cents. That followed a reduction of 5 cents in January.
"We do review our prices generally monthly and compare them with various benchmarks," Moorhead said. "There hasn’t been any increase since February."
As for the traditionally higher cost of gas on St. Thomas and St. John versus St. Croix where the Hovensa is located, Moorhead noted that the product has to go through at least "two hands" before it reaches the retailer.
