OfReg says local pump prices ‘average’ for region
(CNS): As gas prices hit record highs at local fuel pumps, the utilities regulator has released a recent price comparison survey carried out across the Caribbean and the UK. “This shows that fuel prices in the Cayman Islands are in the median average range within the countries of similar size compared and much lower in some cases,” a release from OfReg said. The regulator said it continues to scrutinise fuel costs and recognises that the price of fuel at the pump is rising. With prices close to CI$7 per gallon for regular gasoline at Esso stations and around $7.13 for premium, Executive Director for Fuels Duke Munroe said that OfReg was watching prices.
“As well as our weekly price monitoring of fuel prices, OfReg regularly compares prices in the region and elsewhere as a means of bench-marking fuel prices in Cayman,” he said. “This most recent comparison shows whilst prices are high everywhere, Cayman’s cost per gallon of gasoline at the pump is average and lower than some countries such as the Bahamas, Bermuda, Barbados, Belize, Turks and Caicos, and the UK.”
Bermuda’s prices are impacted by that country’s heavy fuel duty on gas sold at the pumps, which is even higher than Cayman’s 75 cents per gallon.
Munroe said OfReg recognises that fuel prices, inflation and the rising cost of living are impacting consumers, but they cannot control or set the price of fuel. However, retail gas prices are published on the website weekly, allowing consumers to find the best prices available. There is also a frequently-asked-questions page on the website which gives consumers information on why fuel prices are rising and how prices are set in Cayman.
Acknowledging that fuel prices have risen and are likely to rise further, OfReg CEO Peter Gough said, “Global events such as the war in Ukraine and rising inflation are affecting the price of fuel across the world. Import costs continue to be closely scrutinised in line with global costs for fuel, and local prices continue to correlate with those trends.
“While this would not have been anticipated a year ago, as the regulator for fuels, part of OfReg’s role is to protect consumers and that any increases (and decreases) in price are properly and fairly applied by retailers,” he added.
Nevertheless, OfReg is continually under fire for failing to adequately explain how prices are calculated, why there is such a significant lag in the decreases here when global prices drop, and for being too close to the sector. The Office of the Auditor General has also criticised the regulator for failing in its fundamental role of protecting consumers.
OfReg claimed that local retailers “in some instances” have been absorbing the increases and “playing their part to assist consumers”, a point unlikely to convince drivers. While Rubis stations have not yet increased their prices, this is likely related to the timeline of when they acquired the fuel currently running through the pumps, where the price is set to increase shortly.
OfReg said it continues to “work with importers and operators to ensure the Cayman Islands purchases fuel at a fair price on the market and has a reliable and steady supply of fuel”.
Check the gas prices here.
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Ah yes. Lets benchmark our prices against countries with considerably different tax rates on fuel and costs of shipping. You may as well compare our prices to Dubai if you ignore those cost drivers. I mean what is the point of comparing our prices to the UK? Really? Why not compare it directly to the States and factor in a cost per gallon for transport to see if there is gouging.
Sounds more like – “we cast around the region and managed to find a few places that have a higher rate, so there’s no need for us to get into delicate questions like how quickly the local gas stations process go up and slowly they come down, or the profit margins being made “.
I never thought Putin has got so much power he controls all ways of life in the US, Europe and even Cayman.
They play the blame game like kids in preschool. You need a spine to admit your mistakes. We are running short or even out of spines….
Oil companies were forced to slash capacity by upwards of 1 million barrels from April 2020 to 17.95 million bpd as of June pushing for a transition to a low-carbon economy
Forced??? I don’t believe that.
Why would this drive the price higher? It should be lower.
“…forced to slash capacity by upwards of 1 million barrels from April 2020 to 17.95 million bpd…” Less product, higher prices?
Oil companies haven’t been forced to raise prices. When you want to sell more of your product, you LOWER you prices.
“… were forced to slash capacity…” that is written
Do you even understand that by saying “Putin inflation” you are actually complimentng him???
If someone 10,000 miles away can affect your life so dramatically, he must be omnipotent.
The world’s economy was blindsided by the pandemic shut-down, a once-in-a-century event. During the lockdown, workers died, workers became ill, factories and supply-chains shut-down, etc….There is NO WAY the world would immediately recover from that scenario, be real!
The demand of “normality” returning to a world with reduced supply, then add Putin’s war, yes Putin’s war, and that threw gas on the fire. Economics are based on supply and demand, and the balance thereof. The pandemic and it’s fall-out threw that balance way off.
It’s global economics and there NOTHING Cayman can do about it and not a whole lot Biden can do in America either, but neither did he cause it. He can be blamed if he and his team never had the foresight nor expectation for the fall-out if (we don’t know that) and if he does nothing effective to counter it in his realm of influence.
But to blame the American or the world’s present economic situation on Joe Biden and/or the Democrats is not true and is strictly politics. It’s the greatest gift any opposition in ANY democratic country can use in a political season…a gift to US Republicans for sure.
God Help America!
Joe Biden is about as close to being a zero as there is. He never done anything when he was in congress and he hasn’t changed. I don’t trust him.
Reduce duties across the board. CIG has been collecting so much more money than ever on goods including fuel arriving on island at higher costs. Its simple math and they won’t be losing out their hand out quota until prices normalize which will not be anytime in the near future. Win win for PACT and the people they said they would put first.
CIG doesn’t collect more money when fuel arrives at a higher cost. Its a set fee per gallon.
You are spot on. CIG is making a huge windfall profit as oil has gone from $30 a barrel to $120. Government needs to slash the duty. It is unfair not to pass this profit onto the consumer.
Average does not mean it is ok.
It means all of us in the region are getting f***ed by the ones that don’t need it.
The problem is Our Cayman OfReg is way below average for the region.
Prove it!
I agree. Prove your statement. How are they below average? Have the other regulators been able to lower the cost of fuel in this environment?
2.25am Do you read the hundreds of negative comments on this medium- they can’t all be wrong!.
OfReg isn’t worried about anyone. As long as they get their payola they don’t care about you.
it all boils down to the cost of inputs and the cost of capital in the oil sector which both impact heavily on island as to when it comes to energy is 94 percent dependent on oil (diesel, fuel , natural gas).
During COVID the capital expenditure of refineries and shale oil production came to a stop , resulting in less capacity down the road when things got back to normal. Now demand is back but production still is problematic and certainly the situation with Russia does not help, nor does the present US freeze of permits to shale producers, so supply constraints are hitting pretty much globally at this stage.
Another coming whammy is that the cost to capital expenditure of refineries and shale producers is now on the rise due to increased interest rates (shale operators needed very much to have low cost of capital to keep things operating smoothly). At this stage even if capacity would increase so would prices per barrel.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see more imported inflation coming to Cayman and impacting most sectors of activity which have to deal with high energy components . Already some projects are slowing down due to those combined factors and I wouldn’t be surprised if some came to a standstill .
Pact’s response seems to be a too little too late sort of reaction and yes it will be an uphill battle IMHO . And yes I would agree that at this stage Ofreg is a 🤡🚗 (clown car) of epic proportions especially since the utility scale storage system implementation got pushed back again by at least another year due to, you can’t make that up, “procurement and supply chain disruption”!
Ofreg’s argument that cayman is within the region’s average is yet another easy to deploy at the last second smokescreen to defend its utter lack of forethought, I suspect they are not the most brilliant lights in the store, but the lack of forethought here is pretty obvious.
If the government can take over the production of green energy maybe they should also look into operating the fuel terminals. What about going out for a bid to supply fuel. Thats what the companies that operate here do. They dont own any refineries. cut them out and pass the savings on to the consumer. You could probably raise the duty some and still save a ton. Good for Government and the people. Are you out there Wayne.
you want the government, who can’t run anything effectively or efficiently, to operate the distribution of Gas….????
The sad fact is the Lodge don’t want green energy unless they have a controlling stake in it. This is why Cayman will never reach it’s 2037 goal of 70% power generation from renewables.
The Lodge has a controlling interest in both power generation and regulation with it’s members who are employees of CUC and OfReg. Lodge members need to be ousted from OfReg and CUC and as they pose a direct threat to the future energy security and sustainability in Cayman.
New legislation needs to dictate that Lodge members declare their share holdings in the energy sector with the aim of making sure they don’t have a controlling interest.
The issue is a much deeper one than this. The island is dependent on the revenue generated from taxing at a rate of $75.00 KYD per gallon. That is a lot of lost revenue for which GOV cannot recoup somewhere else. It is the same issue with work permits! all these fees make up a large part of the government revenue stream and therefore nothing will ever be done about it.
An island this size with abundant sunlight year round should not be dependent on fossil fuel in any way. We have tides which can generate electricity, solar and winds in our favor so it is just an issue of revenue for GOV.
In my opinion, they should have dropped the gas tax and implemented the expat tax for anyone making over $50K KYD per year. They should also levy a tax for all money services leaving the island. This would make up for the lost revenue and improve the cost for everyone. If this was done then they could incentivize everyone owning property here to invest in solar or other renewables which could generate revenue to off set the new tax.
There is areason for these increases, but to have our Premier spouting Biden’s LIES about it is insulting to the Caymanian people! I listened to the proceedings in the Parliament and repeatedly heard the Premier talking about “Putins inflation.” Inflation was WAY out of control BEFORE Feb. 24, and to hear politicians repeating Biden talking points is an embarrassment. Are we not better than the lies and hypocrisy of the fools to the north, with a dementia riddled president destroying their economy?
If they can get away with it, then no one has a thinking brain cell here. That is unless the local “leaders” have no other LIE to fall back on!! We have to deal with our own financial concerns, not listen to the psycho-babble of other country’s lying politicians. The politicians should at least come up with a more “original lie” for us.
Well said. Our Government is a circus of clowns who can only regurgitate what other Governments are saying and doing. No independent thought!
11.54. Gotcha Mr Trump.
I think one thing the general public will probably need to articulate on this matter, is that the cost of living here is so expensive that any increases from the general average price of gasoline hits us very hard.
Sure we may have comparable gas prices but Cayman is rated one of the most expensive places to live in the world with our wages and salaries for middle class not matching inflation. A simple $1 per gallon on an island, where driving is the only reasonable mode of transportion due to the poor decisions on infrastructure hurts the average resident.
Shut OfReg Down!!!
American oil companies are making record profits. Joe Biden is pressuring them to lower prices. OfReg is a joke I bet they cant tell you what the companies here make. What is Wayne Panton doing. Why cant we even buy 87 octane the regular grade of gasoline. That says alot and dont believe that BS that what they sell is better. The fact that we dont pay the highest prices in the world is no comfort to me. Rant over no one cares.
You can buy 87 Octane at that station by airport
another urban myth exposed.
if you think gas stations are making huge mark-ups…go into business and undercut them….
who said anything about gas stations. Its the oil companies
Its not oil companies. Its OPEC+ refusing to raise production and half the world banning the 3rd largest oil exporter – Russia.
Oil companies are scum, yes. That said, recent policy in the west has been make oil companies reduce production capacity. This was also further compounded by COVID.
Result: We ban russian oil, OPEC+ dont give a $hit because they are printing money and western oil companies cannot switch on a production.
3:34 so you think its ok for us to pay $2 a gallon more than they do in the states. How much do you think it costs per gallon to ship gasoline from the gulf coast to cayman. And dont say its the duty we pay less taxes on gas than they do in the US
Yea offreg, the consumers are watching the prices too go higher, but it is your job to do something about the high prices not just watch it. You bunch of Donkeys.
As long as the price of fuel goes up we will have to pay higher prices. All OFREG can do is regulate, they cannot do drilling. Everything is imported – everything costs more. Don’t shoot the messenger!
Ofreg drilling for oil just casts a mental image that just sings wonders to my funny bone 🤣🤪🤣 Thank you for the joke ! Thanks again!
what do you want them to do lol
you are acting like they can just pick a price that works for them. are you mad lol
Gas going up literally WORLDWIDE and you want ofreg to magically make it $3
It’s the timing of their price adjustments that’s the issue, delays when oil prices go down, lightning reaction when prices go up.
PACT should reduce duty on fuel instead of shelling out millions to tourism workers when they have no idea whether they have a job or not.
Remove all duty & customs taxes and find a viable alternative.