Atg: WIOC has Boardwalk, Park Place, the railroads, and the utilities

Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer has fired a warning shot across the bow of Antigua & Barbuda's main fuel supplier West Indies Oil Company (WIOC).

He was at the time addressing the rising fuel price globally and the impact this will have on the territories of the region. The PM was speaking at an OECS Heads Meeting in St. Vincent & the Grenadines.

"Only yesterday, and again this morning, I was in serious discussions with the West Indies Oil Company, which has long enjoyed a tight monopoly on the supply of fuel to Antigua & Barbuda," the prime minister revealed.

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"I do not know that any country can live with that kind of monopoly," PM Spencer declared.

It was only on Tuesday that the SUN in a front-page article revealed that the West Indies Oil Company may have to introduce an increase on fuel prices shortly.

General Manager of WIOC Ffye Saddler explained that "as you would see in all the other Caribbean islands where prices are already moving up, prices here in Antigua & Barbuda will certainly be moving up as a result of what we call cost push pressures."

The SUN reached Saddler last night to get his reaction to PM Spencer's comments.

He called the current agreement between government and his company "fair and equitable," and "moderate at best."

Saddler said he does not consider the existing arrangement to be a monopoly for the WIOC, noting that there are other competitors in the market. The other player, however, cannot import.
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Spencer told the OECS meeting that "it is heartening that Prime Minister Patrick Manning of Trinidad & Tobago has offered to cushion increases in oil prices in sister Caribbean countries."

Good sign that socialistic thinking might become history in the Caribbean.