Fuel prices soar at the pump

If your gas tank is reading anything below full, you might want to think of dipping into emergency reserves because come Saturday morning, local fuel costs will jump more than thirty-five cents for premium and regular gasoline. According to a government press release issued this afternoon, the new prices at the pump this weekend are as follows:

Premium Gasoline will go from nine forty-five to nine eighty-four, an increase of thirty-nine cents. Regular gas will be thirty-seven cents more expensive, going from nine-sixteen to nine fifty-three.
Diesel had the smallest increase, six cents, which will take it from seven dollars and four cents to seven dollars and ten cents.
Kerosene will still be the cheapest fuel at six dollars and twenty-five cents, up eleven cents from six dollars and fourteen cents.

According to G.O.B., were it not for a smaller tax bite, those figures would have been fifty percent higher. As to the reasons for the jump, Belmopan cites surging prices in Asia and the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the U.S. Gulf Coast. With Hurricane Rita bearing down on Texas, the oil capital of the States, U.S. officials are already predicting that a direct impact would have disastrous consequences on oil prices.