Business & Finance - Friday 26.5.2000

Gas prices now at all-time high

Gasoline is now more expensive in Finland than at any time in the past, even including oil crises. According to statistics from mid-May, normal 95E unleaded cost an average of FIM 6.80 a litre. The price has certainly not gone down from this, says the Managing Director of the Finnish Oil and Gas Federation Jarmo Nupponen.

The price varies greatly, with differences of up to FIM 1.00 on pump prices in the Greater Helsinki area. In Helsinki the priciest gasoline on Thursday was FIM 7.58, and the best buy around was FIM 6.66. Gas prices are being kept high by US fears of the availability of the stuff. In the United States, where gasoline consumption is the highest in the world, stockpiles are extremely low at present. The high price of gas here in Finland is already beginning to show itself in consumption patterns. Over the last 12 months, consumption has declined by around 2% from the previous year. Less and less gasoline may be being bought domestically, but there are increasing numbers of cross-board trips to fill up in Russia, where pump prices are much more attractive. For example around 2,500 cars cross the border at Vaalimaa each day, and the estimate is that at least half of these are after gas. It is more than understandable, particularly if one lives in South-Eastern Finland; barely a hundred metres beyond the Russian customs post is a filling station carrying signs advertising gasoline at FIM 2.50 a litre. Who wouldnt be tempted?

Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 26.5.2000

http://www.helsinki-hs.net/news.asp?id=20000526xx4&pvm=20000526

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 26, 2000