PRESIDENT of the Jamaica Gasoline Retailers Association (JGRA), Trevor Heaven, has projected that motorists will have to fork out close to $120 to purchase a litre of octane 90 fuel in coming weeks.

“If [crude oil] prices continue as they are, then you are looking at between $115 and $120 per litre for 90 octane in the very near future,” he told Auto yesterday.

Octane 87, which is currently in the $90s-per-litre range, will also break the dreaded $100 barrier.

Heaven argued that prevailing international conditions indicated that crude oil prices, which has reached US$90 per barrel, would continue to rise into the New Year seriously affecting local pricing.

Petrojam, the nation’s sole oil refinery, on Wednesday announced a $1.68 cents per litre increase for octane 87 and 90 gasoline and $1.62 cents per litre increase on diesel fuel.

The prices became effective yesterday following a two-week spate of increases that added almost $4 on the ex-refinery price of a litre of gasoline.

The oil refinery’s latest volley of increases now places ex-refinery price for octane 87 at $88 .03 cents per litre and 90 octane at $89.70 cents per litre. Diesel is at $88.70 cents per litre.

Consumers, however, will pay far higher amounts at the pumps as petrol marketing companies and service stations attach their respective markup.

“After the last Petrojam increase I saw prices of $106 per litre for 90 octane at the pumps,” Heaven remarked yesterday, in reference to last week’s gas price increase.

Yesterday gas prices at some service stations across the island climbed closer to $110 per litre for octane 90, as the latest increase took effect.

The prevailing prices from Petrojam are the highest from the refinery, blamed on the spiralling cost of crude, at a 27-month peak, amid unexpected cold-weather demand and unchanged production levels.

Petrojam bosses have expressed the position that there is nothing the company can do regarding international increases in oil prices and have instead urged conservation as gasoline costs climb.

However, Heaven takes issue with the notion that the administration is helpless.

“If we continue with these high prices we are going to have serious social issues,” he told Auto. “Everything has a fuel input,” Heaven commented.

Heaven is instead urging Government to become proactive in mitigating the effects of increasing crude oil prices on the world market.

“I am concerned about projections, down the road, where crude oil prices could reach $140 per barrel,” he said.

“Urging people to conserve is not enough, we need to be proactive,” Heaven emphasised.

The JGRA boss suggested that Government should seek to pre-empt the impact from crude oil prices by engaging suppliers to renegotiate payment agreements.

“It is not enough to say we cannot do anything about it,” Heaven insisted.

Recently Heaven charged that the increased prices on gasoline at the pumps were not to be blamed solely on crude oil prices but also on additional charges by at least one multinational marketing company.