Zug,28.01.2015

Householders to benefit

A number of local firms are benefiting from the current low oil prices, especially property management and transport companies.
 
At present a barrel of crude oil (159 litres) from the North Sea costs just $48, less than half the price it was last summer, when it cost $112.
 
The companies are taking advantage of these low prices by filling up tanks in housing developments wherever possible. "We actually bought in fuel last October and November, not knowing that the price would fall even more," said Beat Geiser of the Hammer Retex AG company.
 
Like many companies who need oil, the problem is that they have nowhere to store any extra. It is the same at the Alfred Müller AG property company, who have likewise been keeping a close eye on oil prices over the past few months.
 
Tanks at properties run by the Gebrüder Oswald AG company are of differing sizes, ranging from a 3,000-litre to a 30,000-litre capacity. Managing director Karin Frei said how they had been busy filling them last week. "As December was particularly cold, some of our tanks already needed filling again," she said.
 
All of these companies said they would be passing on the benefits of these lower fuel prices on to householders.
 
Transport companies such as the ZVB AG are also taking advantage of the low oil prices, though like with the property companies, their storage facilities are limited.
 
The Vanoli construction company of Immensee in the canton of Schwyz is looking forward to a big reduction in its usual CHF 500,000 annual fuel bill. "We actually have our own service station for vehicles with tanks able to store as many as 12,000 litres of lead-free petrol and 35,000 litres of diesel, which of course is also needed for our machinery. When you buy this much, it makes a big difference whether a litre costs CHF 1.30 or CHF 1.80," said company spokeswoman Brigitte auf der Mauer.