QCOSTARICA – While the price of crude oil on international markets continues to drop, gasoline prices in Costa Rica keeps on going up.
Sometime before the end of this week, the price at pumps will increase ¢3 colones for a litre of super and regular and ¢2 colones for diesel, said Monday the Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (ARESEP) – regulator of public prices and services.
The increase reflects an adjustment proposed by the Refinadora Costarricense de Petróleo (RECOPE), that originally requested an increase of ¢9 colones in fuel prices.
The ARESEP did not grant RECOPE the full increase because the Intendencia de Energia (Energy Council of the ARESEP) did not recognize the ¢20 billion expenses in operating costs requested by the refinery.
The approved increase will go into effect the day following its publication in the official government newsletter, La Gaceta, which is expected to occur by this Friday (within five business days of approval).
Currently the price at the pumps is ¢676 for a litre of super, ¢639 for regular and ¢477 for diesel.
For a list of current price of fuel and other oil products, such as kersone, GLP, asphalt and bunker fuels click here.
Hmmm, seeing as how the rest of the world is dropping fuel prices due to the lower cost of crude, a refinery is increasing the cost here in Costa Rica. The claim is to cover additional operating cost, perhaps that is more mismanagement or pure greed.
I call BS on this one
Interesting this morning (Wednesday) caught a brief interview with Carolina Mora, spokesperson for the Aresep, explaining how in other countries the price of fuel reflects the low price of international oil, but, wait for it, this is priceless: while in those countries the price is fueled (no pun indended) by competition, prices fluctuate regularly (many times during a month or week), while in Costa Rica we have the benefit of stable prices, that is changing only once a month.