Radhamés Segura, president of the Dominican Petroleum Refinery, says that the government is evaluating the decline in the price of fuel on international markets to determine whether domestic reductions for fuel here are in order. News reports indicate that petroleum prices are at a 45-month all time low in the London market. In the past three months, prices have dropped 30%. Last week, the average OPEC price was US$14.83 per barrel, compared to the average price in 1997 of US$18.68, and the 1996 average of US$20.29. Pedro Pablo Cabral, president of Shell in the D.R., has advocated for a decline in the price of unleaded fuel in order to stimulate an increase in consumption of unleaded versus leaded gasoline.
