MPs to grill fuel suppliers on price
(CNS): Chris Saunders MP (BTW) successfully steered a motion through parliament last month to establish a select committee to determine how the price of fuel is arrived at here in the Cayman Islands. He said there is at least $2 charged on every gallon sold that, to date, has never been explained. Although this was the primary reason for the creation of OfReg, the fuel regulator has been unable to answer that question.
Speaking in the very early morning hours of Friday, 22 September, Saunders said that the people of this country “are being ripped off” and it was time to get to the bottom of things. He recalled how, when he served on the Public Accounts Committee during the last administration, they had tried to get answers but instead were told that the unexplained $2 on every gallon was because Cayman is a high-cost jurisdiction.
But Saunders said the reason Cayman is a high-cost jurisdiction is because the fuel companies have made it one.
The aim of the motion is to create a committee that can also meet in public when questioning witnesses about why it is that the high cost of living, largely driven by fuel costs, is eroding the quality of people’s lives while the oil companies make record-breaking profits.
Saunders said the fuel factor on CUC bills that he has analysed going back as far as 2009 has always been the driver of the high costs. Just before the pandemic, the PAC held a meeting to examine a report by the auditor general on OfReg, but with the arrival of COVID-19, the committee was never able to complete its review of the fuel costs and get a satisfactory answer about the price of fuel coming into Cayman.
Saunders said there were significant differences in figures reported by the Economics and Statistics Office and CUC, and it has been hard to work out how fuel is priced. He said it was time to “use the privileges of this House” to create a select committee and “let us get to the answers… and find out once and for all why the fuel cost in this country is so much.”
Saunders warned that oil futures for next year are going to be worse than this, and MPs needed to find out what could be done to address it because “there are a lot of unanswered questions”.
Saunders has asked for the government to form the committee by the end of this month and volunteered to serve on what is expected to be at least a seven-member panel, including the chair. He also asked for the findings to be published by next February.
The motion was accepted by the government, and Planning Minister Jay Ebanks offered his support on behalf of the PACT coalition. He especially welcomed the idea of broadcasting the committee hearings so that the public could see the work and MPs asking the tough questions they want answers to. Ebanks also questioned why OfReg, which falls under his ministry, had still not addressed the issues relating to fuel costs and quality.
“How do we get OfReg to intervene and do… what they should be doing to hold the fuel companies accountable?” he asked, despite being responsible for the regulator. “When last did they do any fuel checks… How do we know what we are doing?” — a question many people have been asking for a long time.
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Category: Business, Politics, Private Sector Oversight, utilities
Today is 21Nov. I just arrived in Florida on business. I have seen gas prices range from $2.88 on the East coast (Miami) to $3.04 on the West coast (Naples/Ft. Myers).
I get that we use the imperial gallon but why the Ef is the cost difference so vast. Further, in the US (and I’m sure other countries) the gas prices fluctuate DAILY depending on the true market price. Cayman’s pump prices ONLY increase. And they always winge that their prices are based on the total cost of each shipment. Our prices rarely fluctuate. I’m sure they have excuses for every contingency.
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It should be blindingly obvious at this point that ofreg are not even remotely close to being fit for purpose. A utilities regulator that can’t tell you where half the price comes from? Seriously?
Grill? Hehe a few free voucher handouts and itll be shelved lmao
It would be interesting to know which gas stations are utilized by CIG. Is there a tendering process?
Don’t they still have Gas Boy?
I think the main thing we can all agree on is the need for Ofreg to have big Chevy pickup trucks, you know, for all that heavy truck stuff they do.
I hardly think the fuel companies are guilty of making Cayman a high-cost jurisdiction; nobody is driving more than a few miles at a time. My car – according to the odometer is two years old. It’s a 2016 model.
Then why do we have gas stations every 5 miles? Somebody is making money, and that money is coming from our pockets!
Gas stations make their money through their convenience store sales not gas sales.
Chris Saunders was elected as MP for Bodden Town West, but CNS has twisted him into the Bodden Town East District. Not surprising though as that MP is really struggling and twisting to keep relevant. In this meeting alone he has helped two motions through the house that should be routine work for Off Reg! I mean he knows how to make the poor voting public believe he is working on their side. All he does is talk up a storm and offer zero help. When he was the Minister and had the opportunity to give the poor people real help, he refused to meet with important financial stake holders on very important matters or to return their phone calls and respond to their emails.
CNS: Sorry about the slip. I’ve changed it to the correct BTW.
it’s about time we hear some truth, how about investigating CUC since it has triple the amount on our bills.
how about passing a Consumer Law ,there’s lots to pass if “so interested” in the people.
the rental is outrageous.
How about investigating the Banks of these outrageous fees which I’m pretty sure is legal
How about investigating the Insurance Companies, we pay so much and they barely covers anything.
there is lots of work to be done here and you all too busy doing about it.
the biggest rip off are the insurance companys. I paid Vehicle insurance for over 50 years never has a claim. Now that I am 75 they double my insurance fee. Now that’s a rip off. What about the 50 + years that I paid money to them ???
“He said there is at least $2 charged on every gallon sold that, to date, has never been explained.” Who charges this $2 on every gallon, and who do they charge? Makes a big difference in detmining who the committee should question!
I don’t think any of these clowns are experts in grilling, grafting maybe. Therefore an expected drop in gas prices is likely to be very rare.
Wasn’t Chris Saunders the Minister with oversight of OFFREG before he was relieved of his ministries?. If so why it has taken him until now to try to find out how the price of fuel is worked out? I am suggesting that that shouldn’t be explained but I wonder what is his real ulterior motive.
It might not be a steak he’s grilling, Smells like, looks like a red herring.
Posturing pre-election?
yawn….give me the international supply prices and a calculator and i will have your answer in 10 mins.
how about we look at grocery prices
Wonder if they could explain why local watermelon is twice the price of the imported stuff. You want us to buy local; the price of local food should be cheaper as it hasn’t been flown in.
The profit margin difference is due to local businesses selling 100 units while foreign sells 100,000,000.
Economies of scale.
in the Brac 4 bars soap is 8 + the same soap brand and 4 bars at F0sters Airport is 3 +. In the Brac are lots of highway robbers business/Stores.
Is this not Oreg’s job? what are they getting paid for?
The Chairman is a bit busy. He will need a new wig for his appearance at the Privy Council to keep that structure in the sea in West Bay.
And wasn’t Saunders constitutionally responsible (as they like to tell us) for OfReg for 2 years? He just noticed the price or what?
Any bets that Ozzie Bodden will chair this? I mean, he is Wayne’s running mate and did him a huge polities favor as chairman of hsa board!!!
Maybe less gas stations would drive down the price.
Not only the fuel wholesalers need to be looked into, but also CUC. When you look at the fuel cost on your light bill and work the math to the per-gallon of diesel, you fill find that CUC is charging consumers almost CI$5 per gallon of diesel.
CUC is selling us diesel people!!!!
The $0.25-$0.30 that they charge for per kwh and claim to be competitive in the region is a SHAM!!!
MP’s – Please look into how CUC prices the fuel cost on our bills. Please.
How do you get to that figure? Can you please explain your math.
I didn’t believe it either so I did the math for unna:
Diesel fuel has an energy content of approximately 35.8 megajoules (MJ) per liter or 135,000 BTUs per gallon.
1 kWh = 3.6 MJ
So, the energy content of 1 gallon of diesel is:
Energy (kWh) = (135,000 BTU / gallon) / 3.6 kWh/MJ = 37.5 kWh/gallon or 13.125 kWh at 35% efficiency.
I used 1215 kWh of electricity on my last bill and had fuel fee of $195.51.
Cost per gallon of diesel = $195.51 / (1,216 kWh / 13.125 kWh per gallon)
Cost per gallon of diesel ≈ $195.51 / 92.67 ≈ $2.11 per gallon. $6.03 per gallon assuming that their generators are 100% efficient, which is impossible.
So OP is wrong because they assumed ~100% efficiency, which is impossible, and CUC’s fuel fee is actually quite reasonable..?
40% efficiency on a diesel generator is around the norm
CUC publishes their diesel efficiency; last year it averaged 18.68kWh/imp gal.
Last month CUC charged fuel cost of $0.160781/kWh and fuel duty of $0.013775/kWh for a total of $0.174556/kWh
$/imp gal = 18.68 x 0.174556 = $3.26/gal
Step 1 – take the “Govt Fuel Duty” charge on your bill and divide it by $0.25 (the current duty on a gallon of CUC diesel). That will give you the number of gallons that CUC says was burned to produce the electricity you used for that period.
Step 2 – take the “Fuel Cost” charge on your bill and divide it by the number you got in step one. That will give you the cost per gallon.
When I do it for the bill I just got, it works out to $2.96 per gallon of diesel. Not sure where Broke Citizen gets $5 from.
CUC website states “Fuel costs are passed-though on a two-month lag basis and reviewed by the Regulator.”
Spot fuel prices 2 months prior to September i.e. in July (https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/eer_epd2dxl0_pf4_rgc_dpgM.htm) were averaging $2.60.
And news flash but all profitable businesses pass on all expenses. CUC billing is broken down to help you see where the cost is coming from. If fuel cost were not broken out from the electricity cost, it would only make the electricity cost higher and your bill would be the same while being less transparent.
Please also start taking your total bill and dividing it by the “days billed” on the bottom so that you can see what you are burning per day. This is the figure that will really show you “apples to apples” each month as the number of days billed changes and that can result in what looks like higher or lower monthly bills.
Thank you!
Yes CUC passes the cost through to us, but they buy in bulk and get significant discounts, so there was no way OP could be correct at $5 per gallon!
Nope, it’s complete garbage. The OP just made $5 up. You can easily work out exactly how much they charge us.
As _||) explained above, combustion engines are lucky to even get 50% efficiency. You’re assuming around 90%-100% efficency in your calculations.
I don’t care if it was an AI bot commenting. Their math and reasoning checks out and they even used “unna”.
They didn’t. They just made it up.
When the math ain’t mathing, it’s often because you can’t math…
They are passing on the price they pay. Pure and simple. Nothing more nothing less.
CUC get about 19 kWhr of power per gallon of fuel.
Yep and they add fuel charge of 17c per kWh so they’re charging $3.23 a gallon. It’s not rocket science! $5 is just made up.
For the hundredth time? And isn’t this OfReg’s job…or I mean permanent vacation?
I see they’ve been reading Politics for Dummies. Don’t focus on me, focus on the evil oil companies!
Honorable Joey Hew should lead this committee as he is very smart and articulate.
LOLOLOLOL…
Are you joking?