THE cost of gas will go up from Monday by almost eight per cent.

OWING to a record high in the cost of crude oil and the recent oil refinery fire in Texas, both Jersey Gas and Kosangas (Jersey) have announced their tariffs will go up by 7.6 per cent.

The increase takes their charges back to the November levels, which were reduced for the winter to reflect oil prices around the world.

All price increases are to be applied pro-rata to gas bills after Monday.

However, standing charges will remain unchanged.

Bob Staddon, managing director of Jersey Gas and Kosangas (Jersey), said: ‘During December and early January, wholesale gas prices had fallen and as promised, we passed these reductions on to our customers, who benefited during the colder winter months.

Unfortunately during February and March, prices of crude oil reached an all-time high and our earlier decision to reduce prices may have been premature.

It is unfortunate that the surge in worldwide energy costs over the past two months has forced us to reintroduce the tariff rates that applied at the year end.’