Pump price tops ¥150 for record high

The average retail price of regular gasoline surged to a record high of ¥150.1 per liter on Monday on the back of rising crude oil prices, the Oil Information Center said Wednesday.

The price, which marks a rise of ¥0.2 from the week before, set an all-time high since the center began to survey retail gasoline prices in 1987.

The move comes just after the price hit an all-time high of ¥149.9 last week, after surging ¥4.9 from the previous week.

The average retail prices of premium gasoline reached a record level at ¥161.0 per liter, up from ¥160.9, and diesel fuel also reached a record level, at ¥128.0 per liter, up from ¥127.8.

The average retail price of kerosene rose to a record high of ¥1,605 per 18 liters from ¥1,594, according to data released by the center, which tracks petroleum product prices on a weekly basis.

Prompted by high crude oil prices, major oil refiners, including Nippon Oil Corp. and Japan Energy Corp., have raised their wholesale prices on petroleum products for November by around ¥6 per liter compared with October, thus raising retail prices.

However, because the price increase was so large during the previous week, the latest prices in some areas, including Kanagawa Prefecture, stopped rising and actually dropped slightly.

The center said the prices are expected to remain unchanged or rise less than ¥1 at most until the end of November.