Oil prices are currently about 15% lower than in March. Yet prices at the pumps increased dramatically. Diesel is about S$3/litre, up 15% and petrol (92-Octane as example) is about S$3.20/litre, up 7%.
In the usual cartel-like manner, the various brands all up prices about the same time at roughly the same percentages.
Consumer Association of Singapore (CASE) tracks these prices but remains silent.
Meanwhile, Strains Times quoted USAToday reporting major oil companies raking in massive profits. " Shell trebled its first-quarter earnings to US$9.1 billion, while BP posted a first-quarter profit of US$6.2 billion – its highest in over a decade. Exxon ... more than doubled its earnings in the first three months of the year to US$5.48 billion, and Chevron ... posted first-quarter earnings of US$6.26 billion – more than four times what it made at the same time last year."
Over in the US, Gas prices reached US$4.59 , a new all-time record high for gas prices in America.
The Biden admin has admitted a math error caused long delays in the issue of federal offshore oil and gas development permits, preventing a supply side response. It seems "National Marine Fisheries Service — has used faulty modeling on such impacts and, as a result, overestimated wildlife effects, delaying permitting on existing leases."
One wonders if a somewhat similar miscalculation occured in Singapore. Afterall, we all know how complicated the pump price computation is.
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