The price hike comes as crude oil costs continue to climb on energy security woes involving Iran and Nigeria. In fact, crude oil was trading above $65 per barrel this week - a level not seen since the hurricanes of 2005.

Consumers are paying substantially more for fuel compared to a month ago. Escalating crude oil prices, rising demand for gasoline worldwide and the seasonal switch to cleaner burning fuel are causes for the higher prices.

The declining price of gasoline echoes a recent drop in crude oil prices. The drop in oil appears to be due to continued growth in domestic oil inventories.

Energy security is top of the agenda for oil-importing nations, efforts are made to diversify the source of oil supplies and build strategic petroleum reserves.

The debate here needs to be about moving away from oil as a means of looking at energy security. There are a lot of new technologies that can be looked at for this.

On energy security, oil, I believe the two sides will discuss beneficial cooperation.