Record Gas Prices Around the Corner
Get ready for another round of gasoline price hikes, which if approved, could set a record high in the history of the country.

The Refinadora Costarricense de Petróleo (RECOPE) has a request to the regulating authority for an increase of ¢17 colones for the price of a litre of super gasoline, pushing the price to a record ¢601 colones per litre.

The record was set in August of 2006 when the price of super gasoline hit ¢597 colones per litre.

It is important to not that a portion of the increase and the final price of gasoline is made up of taxes. For example, the total cost of ¢601 colones includes ¢153 colones in taxes, for each litre of regular gasoline ¢147 colones is taxes and for diesel the tax portion is ¢86 colones per litre.

Last week the price of super gasoline went up and Recope made a request for an increase in regular, which has yet to be approved by the Autoridad Reguladora de Servicios Públicos (ARESEP).

The increase for regular is for ¢16 colones, pushing the price of regular gasoline from the current ¢549 to ¢565 colones per litre.

Since January of this year, gasoline prices have been increased 16 times and only dropped on four occasions.

Gasoline prices in Costa Rica fluctuate based on an automatic formula used to set prices, up or down, depending on the daily price of crude oil on international markets.