An online Bahama Journal survey has found that there is widespread support for the Petrocaribe oil agreement among the people who responded.
Ninety-two percent of the 1,669 respondents said the Government of The Bahamas should sign the deal.
Under the plan, Venezuela proposes to assist Caribbean nations to drive their energy costs down substantially.
While the survey was not scientific, Trade and Industry Minister Leslie Miller believes it should be highlighted.
“I would say that the survey probably affects the ambitions and the need of the people of this time for lower fuel prices,” Minister Miller said.
Asked how soon he expects the government to make a decision regarding Petrocaribe, he said, “I wouldn’t bother to attempt to answer that.”
After signing a framework agreement with Venezuela back in June, he had said that by September Bahamians would have started to see benefits from the oil deal and a National Energy Corporation would have been established.
But on Friday, Minister Miller wished not to comment further on the NEC, which he has been pushing for more than two years.
Reiterating what Petrocaribe would mean for Bahamians, he said, “It would mean lower fuel charges for [the Bahamas Electricity Corporation] as well as the driving public at the end of the day. I’ve been saying that now for two and a half years. It hasn’t changed. The parameters are still in place.”
Minister Miller said again that motorists did themselves a favour when they “forced” Shell Bahamas to reduce its costs substantially.
Last week, the price for a gallon of gasoline at Shell stations shot up to $4.77, while it remained at just over $4 at Texaco and Esso. Days later, Shell announced that it was absorbing certain losses and would decrease its price to $3.99.
On Friday, Minister Miller said Esso had increased the cost of a gallon of gasoline to $4.45 and he predicted that the oil company would have to make the same decision Shell made if it expects to keep its customers.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how the Bahamian driving public reacts to the steep increase that was initiated by Esso-It appears that this is the first time in The Bahamas that [this price war] has happened.
“It’s because of the mechanism that took place earlier in the week with the fuel usage committee to force [the oil companies’] hands in reducing prices, but we need the public to be onboard with this. If the public continues to do what it did earlier in the week with regard to not purchasing any fuel from Shell, you would see [Esso] being forced to bring their prices in line with the other oil companies.”
He added, “It is very strange [because] prices at the oil companies are generally in two cents of each other and when you see it get out of whack like it did with a 76 cent margin then you realize that something is terribly wrong and the public forced Shell to bring their prices down to meet the market forces in place. I believe that something similar should be done with Esso.”
Minister Miller urged motorists to go to the supplier with the cheapest price.
“Esso would then learn the same lesson that Shell learned,” he said.
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
Editor’s Note: BahamasB2B had several testers vote in the Journal poll. It was discovered that anyone could vote, any number of times they wanted, making the poll not just “unscientific” but obviously useless. It would be irresponsible to publish the results of such a poll as an indication of public sentiment.
