Oil firms cut fuel prices anew

The three major oil players — Petron Corp., Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. and Caltex Philippines Inc. — announced anew the reduction of their gasoline products by 20 centavos per liter effective today.

Prices of their kerosene products will also be reduced accordingly by 10 centavos per liter.

Two new industry players, Eastern Petroleum and Seaoil, also announced a reduction of their fuel products.

Eastern said they will reduce the prices of its gasoline at the same level while Seaoil is planning to reduce its prices by only 10 centavos per liter.

The reduction came even after some new oil players dismissed the possibility of another price rollback within the month as projected earlier by the Department of Energy (DOE).

Energy Secretary Vincent Perez hailed the oil companies for initiating another rollback.

The latest reduction in gasoline is the sixth time and the fourth time for kerosene product since last April.

"This coupled with the special pricing incentives given by the oil companies will definitely give our bus and jeepney operators no reason to request for transport fare hike as well as mitigating possible negative impact on the economy," Perez said.

At the same time, Perez said 73 service stations of different oil players have been providing pricing incentive on diesel products.

Caltex initiated the rollback in an effort to disprove fears that the impending closure of their refinery in Batangas might result in higher fuel prices.

Caltex also initiated last Sept. 12 a 10-centavo rollback on its gasoline products.

Perez noted the "softening" of world oil prices in the last few days on which he based his projections of another price rollback within the month.

Dubai crude averaged $25.35 per barrel from Sept. 1 to 25 compared to the August average of $27.66. Foreign exchange rate averaged 55.03 to a dollar for the period Sept. 1 to 25 compared to 55.01 in August.