Gas station owners syndicate urges gov’t to lower fuel prices by 10%

AMMAN — The government should lower fuel prices by at least 10 per cent at the end of this month as global crude oil prices continue to slump further, Gas Stations Owners Association (GSOA) President Fahed Al Fayez said Sunday. 

In a phone interview with The Jordan Times, Fayez urged the government’s pricing committee to also lower the price of the 12-kilogramme cooking gas cylinders, which has been fixed at JD10 per unit for over two years. 

The government’s pricing committee is set to update the prices of oil derivatives for next month on December 31, a procedure taken on a monthly basis after the government lifted fuel subsidies on November 14, 2012.

The GSOA president indicated that prices of international crude oil dropped by nearly 18 per cent over the past 21 days, since the latest pricing update, to an average of around $64 a barrel compared to an average of $78 a barrel in November. 

As the government claims to be transparent in its pricing approach of fuel prices in the domestic market, the drop of crude oil globally should be reflected in the local market at the same rate, Fayez said, adding that international market prices of ready-to-use fuel products also went down sharply in the past three weeks. 

He criticised the government for not lowering prices of oil derivatives for November and December by a rate close to the global price, adding that Jordanian consumers saw a 6 per cent drop this month, while it should have been at least 10 per cent.

In regards to prices of cooking gas, also used for heating purposes in winter, Fayez said prices of the product should also be lowered as the current JD10 per cylinder is higher than the real production cost.

But a government official, who preferred to remain unnamed, insisted that prices of cooking gas entail other costs such as import shipment to Aqaba Port, transportation to the refinery in Zarqa and distribution royalties to distributors across the Kingdom. 

Fayez challenged that by saying that these costs also apply to other fuel products. 

Currently, one litre of unleaded 90-octane gasoline is sold at JD0.69 and one litre of 95-octane is sold at JD0.835. 

The prices of diesel and kerosene are sold at JD0.545 a litre.