A report from electrical distributor EdeEste shows that the higher oil prices will cost the company an additional US$47 million. The increased costs are the result of a combination of higher crude oil prices and greater energy consumption by customers. The report, obtained by Hoy, shows that the combination of these two factors provoked an increase in expenditure from US$25 million per month to US$32 million per month. On a yearly basis, this means an additional US$84 million in costs. The report also shows that company plans had provided for the purchase of 221 gigawatt hours of energy, but that as from May, purchases have been in the order of 255 GWh per month. Looking further at the report’s numbers, the newspaper found that EdeEste had projected the price of Number 6 fuel oil to be about US$25 dollars a barrel, but now it appears that the average price per barrel will be closer to US$40 dollars, an increase of 53.6%.