With oil prices dropping around the world, Montserrat gets to feel it is a part of the world, as there were long queues outside the only petrol station in Sweeney’s particularly on Monday. Many motorists, some of them quite low on petrol, and others longing for the premium or higher octane petrol, lined up especially to quickly avail of the low prices at the pump.
The A & F Service Center ran out of petrol on Sunday evening and according to ZJB news proprietor Alton Lindsey said that a combination of month-end rush at the pump and a drop in fuel prices resulted in the station running out of gasoline on Sunday.
Fuel dropped at the pump last Friday, November 28. Regular gasoline prices fell from $15.09 to $13.79 a gallon; a reduction of one dollar and thirty cents. Premium gasoline price also went down by $1.21 to $15.21. There was only 40 cent drop in the price of diesel – from $13.46 to $12.99.
This is the second decrease in fuel prices in less than a month; the last reduction was on October 30.
In July 2012, the fuel cost had dropped to $15.44, a reduction of $1.14, while diesel is now retailed at $14.15 per gallon from its previous cost of $15.30. In February this year the price was at $15.46; there was no premium petrol then.
On the international scene according to Reuters – Plunging oil prices sparked a drop of almost 40 percent in new well permits issued across the United States in November, in a sudden pause in the growth of the U.S. shale oil and gas boom that started around 2007.
The Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico showed a 38 percent decline in new oil and gas well permits last month, while the Eagle Ford and Bakken permit counts fell 28 percent and 29 percent, respectively, the data showed.
That slide came in the same month U.S. crude oil futures fell 17 percent to $66.17 on Nov. 28 from $80.54 on Oct. 31. Prices are down about 40 percent since June.