Roosevelt Skerrit said during a live interview on State-Owned Radio DBS on Thursday that there is no need for panic as a result of Rubis Dominica’s suspension of fuel supply.
“There is no need to panic buy,” he said. You should fill up your tank if necessary, but you should not fill containers and store petroleum products at home.”
Dominica’s petroleum suppliers have supported the government’s price mechanism since 2003.
“Since then, other Caribbean countries have adopted that price mechanism,” he said. In the beginning, we changed the price every eight weeks, but that was changed to four weeks after suppliers of petro products in Dominica requested it.
As Skerrit mentioned, his government met with RUBIS last year and early this year, and RUBIS says it needs a higher profit margin, “RUBIS has claimed they have been losing money.”.
We are not selling petroleum products at a lower price than what is imported into the country, but they are asking for a higher profit margin,” he said.
According to the Prime Minister, there is war in Russia and Ukraine, but his government has also helped cushion the impact by paying 85 cents per gallon of gasoline.
Petrol prices have risen dramatically since the situation between Russia and Ukraine began, he said.
“We are open to discussions, the discussions must be transparent, and the information [that] we would ask RUBIS for must be made available, in order that the government has a better understanding of the government’s concerns and what can be done to address it realistically.”
“The government will bring in a significant amount of gasoline and diesel, which we will provide to Petro Caribe,” Skerrit said. “Petro Caribe will supply the gas stations”
Several RUBIS branded gas stations have reached out to Petro Caribe, and Petro Caribe has started supplying some of them.
