Expert says global oil prices likely to rise again

MANILA, Philippines - Global crude prices are likely to go up again but not as high as they used to be, the chief energy specialist of International Finance Corp. (IFC) said in a press briefing yesterday.  On the sidelines of an energy regulation forum organized by the Royal Norwegian embassy in collaboration with the Philippine Norway Business Council, the IFC’s Tonci Bakovic said oil prices will come back up “not to the prices that they were but they will.”

Department of Energy Undersecretary Zenaida Monsada also said it was difficult to say when prices would move up again.

She said while there is still a supply glut in the global crude market, there are also uncertainties such as the strike of oil industry workers in the United States that may indeed push prices up albeit slightly.

There are reports that oil workers are on strike, marking the biggest strike in history.

According to the BBC, US union leaders launched on Sunday a large-scale strike at nine refineries after failing to agree on a new national contract with major oil companies.

“It marks the first nationwide walkout since 1980 and impacts plants that together account for more than 10 percent of US refining capacity,” the report said.

Members of the United Steelworkers Union (USW) have called on oil companies to improve conditions in the workplace instead of being too greedy.

As for local pump prices, oil companies raised local pump prices two weeks ago but announced another rollback for diesel just last week.

In the latest rollback, oil firms announced a P0.30 per liter price cut for diesel but kept prices of gasoline and kerosene unchanged.

This rollback followed a 30-centavo per liter increase in the prices of gasoline, which came after the death of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz of oil-rich Saudi Arabia recently. The Saudi ruler’s passing has caused uncertainty in the global crude market as the kingdom’s production is the largest among the 12-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which produces roughly 40 percent of global oil supply.

To date, the average price of diesel is P26.20 per liter while that of gasoline is P37.60 per liter, according to the DOE’s oil price monitoring report.