AAFES: Gas prices in Japan, Okinawa
likely to remain steady for rest of year
By Jennifer H. Svan, Stars
and Stripes
Gasoline prices at Army and Air Force Exchange Service pumps in Japan and Okinawa will
likely stay at $1.62 a gallon until at least the first of the year, AAFES officials
announced this week.
Under AAFES’s annual pricing policy, a new price would have gone into effect
Monday. The price could have been about 9 cents more a gallon.
But that policy is still under review, said Army Sgt. 1st Class Jef Reilly,
noncommissioned officer-in-charge of AAFES corporate communications in Dallas.
"The price of gasoline, once the moratorium is lifted, will depend on the policy
that AAFES implements," he said.
As AAFES considers gasoline policy and pricing, it’s tossing around another issue:
regular unleaded vs. midgrade gasoline.
AAFES sells only midgrade gasoline. It’s been that way since the early 1990s, when
the company made the switch to midgrade fuel to accommodate the vast number of older
vehicles driven in the Pacific, Reilly said.
Older vehicles require a mid-grade fuel, he said.
AAFES is seeking customer comments on whether to add regular unleaded to those
locations in Japan and Okinawa that can accommodate two grades, or switch to regular
unleaded at service stations that can provide only one grade of gasoline.
"It adds a selection by giving them a choice of lower grade at a lower cost,"
said AAFES spokesman Maj. Philip Smith.
To determine what customers want, AAFES may conduct a formal survey, Smith said.
One thing will change for AAFES on Monday: its wholesale gasoline costs.
The Defense Energy Support Center announced earlier this summer that its standard price
of gasoline would go up from $1.13 to $1.22 a gallon starting Oct. 1 for fiscal 2002. In
Japan and Okinawa, AAFES and Navy Exchange pay the center’s standard price for
midgrade motor gasoline.
In South Korea, AAFES handles its own contracts for the purchase of fuel and does not
go through the Defense Energy Support Center.
In the United States, the average retail price for regular unleaded gasoline fell more
than 4 cents to $1.485 cents per gallon this week, according to the Energy Information
Administration, Office of Oil and Gas.
The average was 6.3 cents lower than a year ago, and 22.8 cents lower than its peak May
14.
The Energy Information Administration’s Sept. 26 report said, "falling
consumer confidence and fears of a looming recession continued to put downward pressure on
prices."
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