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Gas price spike will be immediate and abrupt at Finnish pumps
The price of gasoline at Finnish pumps is expected to rise overnight between Friday and Saturday by as much as EUR 0.15 a litre.
According to oil sector sources, the pressure of wholesale prices on retail prices on Thursday night was 15.5 cents. Drivers in the Greater Helsinki area were filling up on Thursday in advance of the anticipated increases, even before the scale of the price-hike became clear, and despite the already-record prices at the pumps.
The increase stems from Hurricane Katrina, which has shut down several production platforms and refineries on the Gulf Coast of the United States.
According to Matti Peitso, the head of Neste Marketing, prices at the pump can be expected to go up by around EUR 0.14-0.15 in the course of Friday night. Shell Finland Sales Director Henry Hellberg confirmed that prices have been spiralling at an exceptional rate in recent days, and that more increases are in prospect this weekend.
It is not thought that the increases will affect diesel prices in the same fashion. There have been hikes in the price of diesel lately, but a further large jump is not on the cards. The same goes for heating oil, where pressures from the market are not as intense as in the case of gasoline.
Sources are suggesting that the unprecedented leap in gasoline pump prices may not be a permanent feature. Nevertheless, it is unclear as yet whether there are genuine grounds for the increase, or whether this is a knee-jerk market reaction to a fear of shortages.
One consideration is that if the United States faces gas shortages, and given that the United States has temporarily relaxed its strict environmental laws in order to make it possible for European refiners to deliver emergency supplies, then the temptation to sell at higher prices to the U.S. market might stretch gasoline supplies here rather thin.
Whatever the longevity of the changes that have been forecast, motorists in the Greater Helsinki area were not slow to respond. Although there was no real panic-buying, the queues on Thursday evening at filling stations were longer than usual.
It also remains to be seen whether the new increase will provide some kind of "tipping-point" for car-owners. Some have said that if gasoline reaches 1.50 euros a litre, they will start taking the train instead.
On Thursday, prices for 95E unleaded in the Helsinki region varied from around EUR 1.265/l to EUR 1.349/litre. The cheapest gasoline in Finland can be had from a Jet station in Tampere, at EUR 1.244 a litre for unleaded 95E.