Diesel price tops $10 at the pump in Majuro at the end of April
BY GIFF JOHNSON
Marshall Islands Correspondent
MAJURO, Marshall Islands — Being at the end of the supply chain, which most assuredly describes the Marshall Islands, is no buffer from world events as the U.S.-Israel war with Iran has demonstrated.
From the first week of March, fuel prices in Majuro have been skyrocketing. On April 30, the Mobil Oil Micronesia-supplied fuel stations set another record for prices at the pump as diesel went above the $10 per gallon mark.
Since the war started, diesel prices at the Mobil-supplied stations have leaped by over $3.50 per gallon, while gas prices surged $1.70 a gallon. The price went up to $10.35 a gallon for diesel and $8.40 a gallon for gas at Ace’s One Stop on April 30, with the other Mobil-supplied stations expected to follow suit once they received new deliveries.
The latest increase for Mobil-supplied fuel stations in Majuro caused prices at the pump to surge. Photo by Giff Johnson
This contrasts with the Pacific International Inc. fuel station, which buys its gas through a New Zealand-based supplier and has consistently been the lowest cost fuel provider on Majuro.
PII went up to $7.70 for gas in mid-April and held it there into early May. This is a $1.10 increase per gallon since the war broke out.
Immediate fallout from the dramatically increased fuel prices was a 50% hike in taxi fares by the Majuro Taxi Drivers Association. In Majuro, which has no public transportation, taxis function as the main mode of transportation for most of the population. But the rise from $2 per ride downtown to $3 negatively impacted many low-income earners who live paycheck to paycheck and now must shell out more not only for their own transportation but for taxis for their children to get to school. mbj
MAJURO, Marshall Islands — In the 1980s and 1990s, when the world listened to music on vinyl records and later CDs and DVDs, there was a huge “underground” illegal industry that produced and sold what were known as “bootlegged” copies of the music of popular artists. In September, Majuro was hit with a flood of counterfeit food products, showing how the bootleg industry shifts over time.
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