Action line 80910 - Fuel prices

  • Published
  • By Anonymous
  • 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
Complaint:

Correct me if I am wrong but it was my understanding that AAFES overseas fuel prices were directly related to prices in America as well as a few other factors.

If that is true, why is it that the fuel prices in the States keep going down and the prices here remain the same? Gas prices have consistently gone down in the States for almost five months. It seems that as soon as prices in the States rise, AAFES is quick to match the price jump, but when prices come down they take their sweet time to push the savings on to us.

I know we already get a great savings from the cost off base. It would just be nice to get the price break they are getting in the States.


Response:

Thanks for the chance to explain this ... and it's rather complex! However, you asked the question ...

Our prices are established weekly, each Tuesday morning, by consulting the DoE average survey, by grade. Those survey prices are found on the Energy Information Administration web page at: www.eia.doe.gov and include surveys of over 900 CONUS gas stations. To those averages we add each country's incremental dispensing costs. Incremental dispensing costs are calculated as the difference between AAFES overseas dispensing costs and AAFES CONUS dispensing costs. The combination of the DoE average and the country-specific incremental dispensing cost yields the final weekly sale price.

For the past several weeks, our Shoppette has been selling gas at cost - no profit whatsoever. That means, of course, when the cost of gas declines, our price here will remain the same for a bit of time to allow AAFES some profit.

Just one last note: gas prices in the US have climbed since Jan 08, with a brief downturn in July and August. For September, they're back up (www.aaa.com). Thanks again for taking the time to write.