THE price of petrol is coming down, with petrol stations across the island engaging in a price war.
Lefkaritis Bros Ltd, who operate Petrolina, Lina and AGIP, on Monday followed EKO by cutting the price of petrol by 2.4 cents a litre.
Akis Lefkaritis, director of Lefkaritis Bros, yesterday told the Cyprus Mail that, “our costings are based according to our imports and we have recently brought in cheaper petrol and lowered our prices from Monday morning. At the moment, 95-octane sells at 53.5 cents per litre and 98-octane at 55.3 cents.”
He went on to say that the “price of crude affects prices at the pumps but is not the only factor. There will hopefully be more supply from OPEC in the future, which will enable prices to remain stable.”
Dalia Chrysanthou, public relations manager at Lukoil, who are the largest producers of oil in Russia, confirmed that prices were coming down.
“There are various reasons why, but the most important factor is that transportation costs are low at the moment, with refineries in Bulgaria, for example, being close by.”
“We currently operate 29 petrol stations across the island and are selling 95-octane at 53.3 cents per litre and 98-octane at 55.5 cents per litre. We are also bringing the price of diesel down, with eurodiesel currently 52.7 cents per litre while agrodiesel is 34.2 cents.
“The prices on Lukoil’s forecourts cannot be matched by any other petrol company in Cyprus. We offer the cheapest prices and if you doubt this claim, just go out and see for yourself.”
A spokeswoman for ExxonMobil, which is the world’s largest company in terms of market value, said their policy was not to give out specific figures or comment on what others were doing. “When we need to inform the public on a certain matter, we do it through our own channels,” she said.
World oil prices fell sharply yesterday, as Hurricane Wilma appeared to have missed energy facilities in the US Gulf of Mexico, analysts said.
“The market was back down almost a dollar and is expected to continue to weaken with Brent due to head to $55, and potentially $50 by the year-end depending on how cold the winter in the US and Europe turns out to be,” Sucden analyst Sam Tilley told Qatar’s Gulf Times newspaper.
“The likelihood is, however, that OPEC will not want to see prices drop much below its recent $50 target and will cut output by the second quarter of 2006 to prevent a sharp drop in prices.”
If the competetion is healthy the price should go down. However I belive the oil companies agree on the price more or less
Not monopoly but Oligopoly!
