The price of gasoline worldwide has skyrocketed to its highest level in 30 years ? and Bermuda is also feeling the pinch.

Taxi driver Quinton Binns told he now spends $35 to $40 a day on gas for his cab.

At $35 a day, Mr. Binns will spend nearly $12,000 on taxi fuel alone this year.

?It is a good amount of money,? Mr. Binns said. ?It definitely affects (the taxi) business.?

He said that taxi drivers are given a five or ten percent discount at some gas stations because we are ?in there every day?.

Cabbies have no choice but to put up with the higher prices.

?There is no other way. If we don?t go out, we do not feed our families... I know I need the gas, so I get it. If I don?t have gas, I don?t work,? Mr. Binns said.

Taxis are not the only industry affected by the high prices.

A spokesperson from a local trucking company said the cost of keeping its trucks running was ?phenomenal?.

?The price just keeps going up,? he said.

However, because the trucks run on diesel, they are slightly more economical.

?They should put the price down,? he said.

Last week Government raised fuel prices to $5.36 a gallon.

Bermuda, which gets most of its gas from Venezuela, has no choice but to follow the world trend of higher fuel prices.

David Rose, oil products business manager for the Shell Company of Bermuda, said the price per barrel of light crude on the world markets has hovered around $40 this year.

The highest closing price for Nymex-traded crude futures was $48.70 on August 19, he said.

Hurricane Ivan temporarily shut down many Gulf of Mexico-based refineries, affecting supplies from Venezuela.

According to Mr. Rose, the price of a gallon of gasoline in Bermuda in September was up one cent from August.

A gallon of gas in Bermuda was still cheaper in August than France ($5.41), the Netherlands ($5.74) and the UK ($5.53).

A gallon of gas in August in the US on August 30 cost an average of $2.06.

The price of gasoline is higher now than in 1991, when the Gulf War began and the nominal cost of a barrel of crude was $32.50, according to figures from the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Mr. Rose said the reasons for the spike in prices were related to supply and demand around the world.

He said that during the last eight weeks, crude oil prices have consistently reached long-term highs primarily driven by fears of disruption to oil supplies in a market ?already on edge over supply security?.

?To make matters worse, high prices around the globe are not expected to decline any time soon while (oil) reserves remain tight and geopolitical tension high,? he said.