No price rise yet

Press, 13 July 1979, Page 3

No price rise yet

Oil companies have not yet made applications for an increase in the price of petrol in spite of rumours that * big rise is in the offing. However, representatives of the main oil companies all expressed concern about the latest O.P.E.C. price rises and said that these would eventually be felt by petrol users.

‘The effects of the O.P.E.C. price rise on April 1 are just starting to be felt now,” said a spokesman for Shell Oil New Zealand, Ltd,

“so it could take two or tl tee months for this latest increase to filter through.” He said any application for a petrol price lice would be an industry one rather than being restricted to a particular company. The price was continuously under review, but the i ipanies’ profit margin had remained unchanged from late 1977. In that time the retail price of petrol had increased four times and so companies saw their margins being eroded away, he said. “You could say that we have been acting as the

country’s bankers for energy.”

After the last retail petrol price increase on May 17, the oil companies gave a warning that another rise would be necessary to make ends meet. There have been suggestions that the price could rise to 44c a litre — the equivalent of $2 a gallon — by the end of the year.

Senior executives of the oil companies are attending a series of special meetings in Honolulu where technical aspects of the expansion of the Marsden Point refinery are being explained.