Reyes to summon oil firms anew

Energy Secretary Angelo T. Reyes will summon the country’s oil firms anew to determine whether their recent price rollback is “sufficient”.

“We recognize that there are other factors that affect pump prices like foreign exchange and the possible impact of the OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) meeting in Vienna.  But we have to know if the current pump prices are consistent with the movements in the international oil market. We want to know whether the reduction is sufficient,” Reyes said.

He said they have been monitoring the price movement of oil abroad, noting that there has been a slight uptick for the past two days.

From the period Sept. 2-4, Dubai crude, the benchmark used by oil refiners, increased from $101 to $104 per barrel.

“There was a $3 per barrel increase in global prices. We will study its impact,” he said.

As this developed, Unioil Philippines Inc., one of the country’s leading independent oil players, is planning to implement another rollback in the prices of gasoline next week, two days after it reduced prices of its gasoline, diesel and kerosene products.

Unioil general manager Luisito Medina-Cue Jr. said if oil prices in the international market will continue its downward spiral, then the public can expect another price rollback.

“We are planning another rollback next week depending on the market forces. There will be a possible P1.50 per liter reduction,” Cue said.

Last Tuesday, Unioil along with other independent players, announced a P1 per liter rollback on their products.

It was the sixth price rollback implemented by the oil companies.

Since August, gasoline and diesel prices have been rolled back by P6.50 per liter and P4.50 per liter, respectively.

Oil firms said the rollback was due to the continued reduction of prices of petroleum in the global market.

Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) prices for unleaded gasoline, also went down to $111.43 this month, lower than the $115.49 average recorded last month and $135.27 per barrel in July. MOPS is the pricing gauge of oil importers like Unioil.

With the rollback, prices of unleaded gasoline now range between P53 to P55 per liter; kerosene at P56 to P59.80 and diesel at P52 to P54.09 per liter.

Cue also said their retail outlets have reported a doubling of sales since the rollback as more motorists patronized the company.

“We are currently experiencing extra-ordinary high sales in majority of our retail stations after we had a rollback last Tuesday. Sales doubled in the last 36 hours since we instituted the price reduction,” he said.

Unioil has more than 40 outlets in Luzon alone. It is planning to spend a P90 million for the construction of six new stations in Quezon City, Caloocan, Las Piñas and Makati. It also has outlets in the Visayas and Mindanao.  — Donnabelle L. Gatdula