I REFER to last Friday's report, "Shell to shut tap on budget fuel", in which Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) executive director Seah Seng Choon was quoted as describing the retail fuel market as "cartelistic".
While it may be a common misperception, it is not a correct description of the motor fuels retail market.
The motor fuels retail market in a compact city like Singapore is highly competitive.
It is due to this intense competition that pump price changes by any retailer here tend to invoke a swift response from its competitors.
In addition to market competition, petrol prices are determined by a number of other factors, including wholesale fuel prices, taxes and other operating costs.
Beyond pricing, Esso also competes by investing heavily in our Smiles loyalty programme and through our NTUC FairPrice alliance, we bring more value and convenience to our customers.
We wish to state categorically that we, at ExxonMobil, greatly support free and fair competition.
As a company policy worldwide, we neither discuss prices nor market segmentation with competitors.
And we certainly do not subscribe to, or support, any anti-competitive activities.
Jonathan Law
Public Affairs Manager
ExxonMobil Asia Pacific
