New Brunswick motorists will be paying a little more at the gas pumps after the Energy and Utilities Board awarded Irving Oil an 8.5 per cent increase in its wholesale petroleum margins.

It's the first increase in almost seven years.

Still, it's well below what the company wanted and less than what Nova Scotia regulators awarded Irving late last year.

Irving Oil applied for a 23 per cent increase in its New Brunswick wholesale petroleum margins last spring.

The New Brunswick regulator's spokesman, David Young, said the decision came down to fractions of cents.

"The applicants had applied for an increase of 1.36 cents per litre. The Board approved a margin increase of 0.51 cents a litre," he said.

The half cent increase will raise consumer prices in New Brunswick for gasoline, diesel and heating oil by about $8 million per year.

Irving applied for increases ranging between 22 per cent and 25 per cent in the wholesale margins it can charge retailers — and ultimately the public for gasoline — diesel and heating oil last June. (CBC)

Irving was more successful in Nova Scotia where it won a 10.8 per cent increase in December in a negotiated settlement of a similar application in front of the Nova Scotia Utilities and Review Board.

New Brunswick Green Party Leader David Coon opposed a similar settlement attempt in New Brunswick. He said a full hearing proved better for consumers.

"This is the appropriate open transparent way to do it. Everyone is fed up with decisions that are getting made behind closed doors supposedly in the public interest."

Irving Oil also applied for increases in P.E.I., but the result remains a mystery.

The company said Island regulators granted its request in full, a claim the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission denies.