Director of Trade, Matthan Walter, has announced that the price of gasoline in Dominica has risen from $10.56c per Gallon to $11.32c as a result of artificial scarcity effective from March 8. Walter said the artificial scarcity is caused by the scaling down of production volumes by OPEC, a development that caused the price of available fuel to rise.
Walter said the price hike also affects diesel, kerosene, and LPG among other types of fuel.
“The OPEC, which is the oil producing countries, has decided to cut back on production and as a result of that, there is an artificial increase on the price of the product,” Walter explained.
He noted that the artificial fuel scarcity and resultant price hike were not caused by the forces of demand and supply, but due to lower production by oil-producing nations. He added that the pandemic has made many businesses and factories to close down – reducing the amount of gas usage in major industries, while the global lockdown has also reduce air-flights, reducing the amount of gas usage in the travel industry too.
Based on the above, there is less demand for oil across the world and this prompted OPEC to cut down on supplies, causing the cost of the available supply in the world market to rise. He however noted that the Dominican government will do everything in its power to ensure that Dominicans pay a fair price for gas in the light of global development.
He said the government will continue to monitor global prices and will use the Platts Daily Average to calculate the price of products over a four-week period to ensure that Dominicans do not overpay in comparison with other affected countries.
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