FUEL companies yesterday assured motorists they would not yet increase their prices, despite a record rise in international crude oil prices.
Crude oil prices have shot up by a record 42.38 cents, with US crude oil prices yesterday standing at at $42.45 a barrel following a suspected al Qaeda attack on a residential complex that killed 22 people at the weekend, mostly foreign oil workers, at the city of Khobar in Saudi Arabia.
But fuel companies yesterday opted for restraint saying they would wait and see how prices fluctuated in the next three to four days.
“We will wait for a while and see what happens with the international crude oil prices,” Petrolina director Akis Lefkaritis told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.
“We purchased our fuel at the high prices, but we will wait; fortunately the dollar has gone to £2.10 so it balances things a little bit for us; we might have a little bit of a loss, but we will wait.”
Lefkaritis said the new price changes would also create mayhem with changing signs on the fuel giant’s 100 outlets.
“Changing the prices every week is just ridiculous, we can’t keep going around changing our signs,” he said.
Lefkaritis said he was also optimistic that OPEK countries would increase their production from 88 per cent to 100 per cent, something which he said would help reduce international prices.
“I don’t know if prices will go down again, I don’t want to say anything and then somebody decides to bomb something else,” he said.
Lefkaritis’ comments were echoed by ExxonMobil Purchasing Manager, Michalis Michael, who told the Cyprus Mail yesterday the company had also chosen to play the waiting game.
“There was a record increase today of around 42.38 cents in crude oil prices, which is an all-time high, but it’s too soon to tell,” he said.
“We have to wait and see, we will always try to absorb some increases and try not to increase our fuel prices, to avoid creating a problem in the market.”
Government Spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said the government was monitoring the situation with great concern.
“If international crude oil prices continue to rise there will be consequences,” he said.
“But it’s not up to us what crude oil prices will be: that depends on production, terrorism and other factors,” he said.
