The price of a gallon of super gasoline stood at $3.68 last Saturday, achieving a record figure since its liberalization.
This increase is due to international oil prices that are exceeding $90 per barrel.
But why every time the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) values rise, does the gallon of super gasoline increase in Ecuador?
According Oswaldo Erazo, executive secretary of the National Chamber of Petroleum Derivatives Distributors (Camddepe), This occurs because the country is deficient in the production of fuels.
Price of super gasoline in Ecuador reaches record figure
“We import 66% of the gasoline we consume, so international prices affect us here,” he explains.
With this agrees the economist Guillermo Granjawho remembers that these Impacts began from the release of the price of super gasoline.
“It is subject to supply and demand and logically it has to do with the international price of oil, in this the WTI and based on that we see that the price rises and has an impact on the local market,” he says.
Erazo recounts the factors that lead to an increase in the value of oil such as geopolitical ones.
One of them is the tensions on the borders of Russia and Ukraine; the imbalance between supply and demand. “There is a greater demand than supply for oil, that is why international reserves are falling,” he points out.
The economist Jorge Calderon He agrees with these cases and adds that the situation between Russia and Ukraine harms supplies because Russia is one of the main suppliers.
“In addition to the sanctions that could exist by the United States, the United Kingdom towards Russia,” he comments.
Super gasoline recovered price this January 12 after a transitory drop in December
He adds that the winter in the northern hemisphere is another matter of concern. “Furthermore, the limitations that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has placed on supply and demand to support the price of oil… puts pressure on the price,” he indicates.
He adds that the global economic recovery, after the vaccines, also causes this impact on the price of crude oil. “And since it is liberalized (in Ecuador) it is tied to it,” he points out.
Erazo believes that the rise stems from oil substitute products such as natural gas, “which has very high prices and many industries have already begun a process of changing the use of natural gas for a few months.”
Meanwhile, Granja indicates that inflation is another decisive point. “We are seeing the rise in costs and governments are taking restrictive measures, to slow down the liquidity of the markets a little to be able to, even increase interest rates to make inflation go down,” he affirms and adds that this new phenomenon of high oil prices that leads to the rise of super gasoline would last about a year.
The price of $3.68 in super gasoline will be in force until March 11, according to Petroecuador.
In the last two months, the gallon of this gasoline has increased by $0.28. In December 2021 it was priced at $3.40 and now in February it was $3.68.
Super gasoline is the only one whose price is liberalized and fluctuates according to the international values of West Texas Intermediate. This liberalization was decreed since December 2018.
Meanwhile, the values for the extra and ecopaís remain frozen at $ 2.25 and for diesel at $ 1.90 from October 2021. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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