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How bad will you be affected by gasoline retailers’ decision to stop accepting Visa and MasterCard credit cards for fuel?
Very badly
Robert Lalah
By Robert Lalah
I could scarcely believe my eyes. The sign outside the gas station near Ocho Rios, St Ann, had the price of a litre of 90 octane gas as $135. Surely, this was a mistake. I mean, gas prices are high, and they seem to be rising faster than ever, but there’s no way anyone could be selling it for that much money.
I continued driving along the same roadway, amused at the gas station’s error and wondering how long it would take for them to discover the misdeed. Poor fools, I thought.
Then, my stomach sank. About 100 yards to my left was another gas station, a different company entirely, and looming over the property was a billboard of sorts, ominously displaying the price of a litre of 90 octane gas – $139.
I was stunned.
This happened a couple of weeks ago while I was in St Ann for just a day. In Kingston, a litre of the same gas averages somewhere around the mid to high 120s. St Ann clearly has it a lot worse, but I suspect that no matter where in the country you are, filling up at a gas station these days is more painful than root canal.
I remember when the price of a litre of gas hit triple digits for the first time. Something told me that despite the usual fluctuations in prices, we would never again return to sub-$100 days. I fear I was right.
Everyone hates high gas prices. You could be driving a Corolla or a Range Rover, it really doesn’t matter. We all have things we’d rather do with our money.
Same lousy gas
The most vexing part of it is that whether you’re paying $39 or $139, all you’re getting is the same lousy gas that will only take you from here to there and no further. What’s so great about over there anyway? I’m seriously contemplating just staying here permanently.
But I know I’ll probably have to go to the grocery store at some point, so I need to come up with some sort of low-budget transportation plan. I was near South Camp Road the other day and saw two policemen standing on a sidewalk behind some shrubs while two large brown horses grazed nearby. I used to think it was silly for policemen to be riding around the city on horses in this day and age.
It always seemed awkward, like the horses weren’t sure how to manoeuvre the paved areas and the policemen were just hanging on for dear life, hoping they’d figure it out. But now I see the genius of it. Horses don’t run out of gas. And when they need a top-up on energy, all you have to do is pull up to the nearest grassy area and let them have a go at it.
They are messy, though, and it would likely be a real chore parking one in a garage.
I guess I could always get a scooter. They run on very little gas, can zip through traffic and are a breeze to park. The trouble, though, is that it’s impossible to look cool on a scooter. There’s something about the tiny wheels and perky horn that make them appear less than sophisticated.
Walking is an option, but only within reason. I can’t promise anyone that I’ll be trekking miles-long distances, but perhaps for everyday tasks, this plan could work. Instead of driving around town paying bills and buying this and that, at places relatively close to each other, maybe I could just walk. I certainly wouldn’t have to worry about parking, and refuelling would require little more than a tall glass of water.
But consider how time-consuming this would be. And what if I want to see a late movie at Carib? I don’t want to be walking home near midnight. There are enough crazies in the city during the day.
Hmm. Foiled again. This needs some more thought, but I won’t stop trying. Better to find a way out now than to wait till gas gets to the dreaded $200-per-litre mark which, at the current rate, could be only a few months away.
Robert Lalah is assistant editor – features, and author of the popular ‘Roving with Lalah’. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and robert.lalah@gleanerjm.com
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20120903/cleisure/cleisure4.html
The big spike in gasoline prices is just about over, but it’s too late to bring much relief for Labour Day weekend.
The national average price for gasoline inched up just 0.3 cents Friday to $3.83 per gallon, ending a string of dramatic increases caused by Hurricane Isaac.
“We’re in the ninth inning of this,” said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service.
Still, drivers will pay the highest pump prices ever for this time of year.
The sky-high prices are keeping people like David Keup of Cedarburg, Wisconsin, home. He was planning to visit a few friends near Coleman, Wisconsin this weekend, but now he’s going to abandon the 285-mile round trip.
“It’s not worth the added expense,” he said.
Isaac, now slowly disintegrating over the middle of the country, forced several Gulf Coast refineries to shut down or operate at lower rates. This has deprived markets of millions of gallons of gasoline and sent prices sharply higher.
The storm pushed the national average gasoline price up 10 cents per gallon in one week, including a 5 cents gain Wednesday that was the biggest one-day gain since February of 2011.
But the price surge appears to be over. Kloza expects average gasoline prices to creep higher during the weekend then start falling after Labour Day, the last big driving weekend of the summer.
Pump prices were on the rise even before Isaac arrived. The average gasoline price rose about 40 cents from July 1 to mid-August because of refinery problems in the Midwest and West Coast, and sharply higher crude oil prices.
Crude has traded between $94 and $97 per barrel for two weeks, after rising from a low near $77 in late June.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20120903/business/business4.html
Kelly Tomblin, JPS president and CEO
Since the start of 2012, the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) has lost more than US$30 million as a result of electricity theft. This, as the company continues to absorb the cost of the fuel used to produce much of the electricity that is illegally abstracted.
“About 14 per cent of the electricity produced by JPS is stolen, and the cost of this theft is shared by both JPS and our customers,” says Kelly Tomblin, JPS president and CEO. “In addition to the financial losses associated with electricity theft, JPS is spending another US$30 million each year on efforts to curtail the problem. Despite this investment and the dedication of more than 200 employees to fighting losses, the problem persists,” she said.
JPS has utilised a number of strategies in its fight against electricity theft. These include the installation of anti-theft systems in communities with high levels of losses, account audits, investigations, removal of illegal lines, and supporting the police. Since the start of the year, 38 persons have been arrested for illegal abstraction of electricity, more than 5,700 meter irregularities have been discovered, and 14,000 illegal ‘throw-up’ lines removed across the island.
“We continue to explore additional ways of dealing with this problem, as persons are getting more and more innovative in their illegal use of electricity. JPS needs the support of everyone – the Government, customers, the police, and community leaders to address this problem because it affects every sector of society,” the JPS CEO explained.
Petrojam is facing increased pressure to make public its formula for calculating the price of petroleum products.
The Micro, Small and Medium Sized Enterprise, MSME Alliance, says for many of its members, especially taxi drivers, the impact has been devastating and concerns are mounting in the face of persistent questions about the pricing mechanism used by Petrojam.
Their call follows several from Opposition Spokesman on Energy, Gregory Mair who has been strident in his criticisms of the pricing mechanism, labelling it as deeply flawed.
However, despite calls for Petrojam to open up to public scrutiny it has steadfastly remained silent.
President of the Jamaica Solar Energy Association and member of the MSME Alliance, Roger Chang says the information should be made available to dispell doubts that the public is being cheated.
Mr. Chang says he’s now awaiting the outcome of a request for the pricing formula through the Access to Information Act.
He told our newscentre that he decided to go that route after failing to get a satisfactory response from Petrojam’s General Manager, Winston Watson:
Mr. Chang says the MSME Alliance is also questioning whether the concerns raised in two audit reports of Petrojam in 2008 and 2009 have been addressed.
He says among other things the audits said Petrojam’s pricing mechanism is being administered with limited oversight.
The audit pointed out that with Petrojam being one of the market participants it was improper for it to administer the pricing system.
Mr. Chang says the reports also outline a lack of transparency and inefficiencies at the refinery which results in the cost being trickled down to the consumer at the pumps and in their electricity bills.
Yesterday it was announced that motorists would have to pay more for petrol for a ninth straight week as Petrojam hiked prices to just below record levels.
http://rjrnewsonline.com/news/local/petrojam-pressured-over-petroleum-pricing-formula
The Petrojam oil refinery at Marcus Garvey Drive in Kingston – File
In the wake of concerns about the rising cost of petrol, Petrojam, the oil refinery jointly owned by the Jamaican government and
Scotiabank Jamaica has created a loan facility which can be accessed by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as homeowners to purchase renewable energy systems. The loan is being offered at a rate of 9.75 per cent per annum. Also available is an unsecured loan at a rate of 15.99 per cent. The institution The state-owned oil refinery Petrojam is to provide full disclosure on its pricing mechanism in the wake of Chad Bryan, Gleaner Writer As the current exchange between the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (Petrojam) and the Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise (MSME) Alliance continues, fuel prices keep going up. The MSME is the latest organisation to complain publicly about high gas prices. MSME member and Jamaica Solar Energy Association President Roger Chang, is asking that Petrojam make its pricing mechanism public. Rising gas prices are a consistent feature of Jamaica, in the past punctuated by riots as government taxes caused a sudden spike, which aroused public ire. One of those riots was in January 1979 when, under the Michael Manley-led People’s National Party (PNP) government, fuel prices increased from $3 to $3.20 a gallon for premium gasolene and from $2.85 to $ 3.10 a gallon for regular. In January 1985, yet another year started with increased fuel prices ande riots, this time under the Edward Seaga-led Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) government. Five people were killed in the violence that ensued after a $1.91 increase, prices moving from $8.99 a gallon to $10.90 a gallon for premium gasolene. In April 1999, with the PNP back in control under the leadership of PJ Patterson, demonstrators took to the streets to protest a hike in fuel tax from $1.55 a gallon to $2. On Friday, Petrojam’s website listed E10 (87) gasolene at $107.5228 and E10 (90) at $109.1787, prices to which dealers would add their margins. The increase in fuel prices is an all too common occurrence which motorists continue to grapple with at the pumps as, since recently, the cost of fuel went up by $2.00 to cost $107.52 for a litre of E-10 87, $109.17 for E-10 90 gasolene and automotive diesel, which has gone up by $1.11 to sell for $ 107.29 per litre. The earliest figures on the website were $27.4276 for unleaded 87 grade fuel in February 2004, with unleaded 90 going for $28.8704 at that time. Cheap petrol price? According to It’s one of the costliest crimes plaguing Jamaica, but few people recognise the scope and gravity of this parasitic add-on. The Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), the monopoly distributor of electricity across the island, lamented this past weekend that it has lost US$30 million to electricity theft so far this year, and spends another US$30 million annually on technology to curb the piracy. Combined, that represents the equivalent of J$5.4 billion that inflates the cost of power to Jamaican households and businesses teetering on the edge of survival. “About 14 per cent of the electricity produced by JPS is stolen, and the cost of this theft is shared by both JPS and our customers,” says Kelly Tomblin, JPS’s president and CEO. Of course, that’s not the whole story. Jamaica’s electricity costs are meteoric because of JPS’s outdated plants, which deliver energy inefficiently. Energy cost, as this newspaper has repeatedly emphasised in these columns, is the most crucial factor behind the uncompetitiveness of the Jamaican economy. This handicap puts Jamaica at a severe disadvantage internationally and against regional neighbours such as Trinidad and Tobago, on which misplaced rage has been directed for its one-sided trade relationship, on which Jamaica is running a deficit of nearly US$1 billion on mostly oil imports. Scores, if not hundreds, of businesses that have foundered name electricity cost to be among the main reasons, if not the primary one, for their collapse. Jamaica pays up to US$0.40 per kilowatt-hour for energy – JPS will be quick to remind that August’s rate was eight cents cheaper – six times that of Trinidad and Tobago. Phillip Paulwell, the energy minister, has been a vigorous cheerleader for the dismantling of the monopoly, which he believes will drive down costs to consumers. Mr Paulwell predicates his vision for a liberalised electricity sector on foreign investors indulging their appetite among a Jamaican population willing to give its hand to the suitor with the sweetest proposal. But Mr Paulwell’s romanticised notions seem to ignore the compelling reality that investors may not gamble money on Jamaica’s unreliable national security structure. LAW AND ORDER ON HOLIDAY? The maintenance of law and order is the fundamental role of government, the glue that holds society and the economy together. It is on that score that the Jamaican Government has been found wanting. JPS, which has decades-old roots in the Jamaican economy, may be less minded to disengage because of the breadth of its capital investment, even if it has to spend an extra US$30 million a year. A new company, however, may be less inclined to yawn at such write-offs for crime. Politicians of both the ruling People’s National Party and the opposition Jamaica Labour Party have generally winked at the problem of electricity theft. Most inner-city communities are cobwebbed with illegal connections. And unscrupulous business operators and wealthy suburban householders are big on the gig. The police do little to prevent it. The numbers bear the tale. According to JPS, “Since the start of the year, 38 persons have been arrested for illegal abstraction of electricity, over 5,700 meter irregularities have been discovered, and 14,000 illegal ‘throw-up’ lines removed across the island.” But that’s a drop in the bucket. Government had better get serious about electricity theft. Or its overtures to investors might be equated with wooing a lover without the vow of protection. The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published. http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20120903/cleisure/cleisure1.html
