Oil prices drop by 50 cents per liter

Oil companies implemented yesterday another rollback of 50 centavos per liter on all their pump prices of their fuel products.

Petron Corp. said the price rollback reflected the continuing decrease in international crude prices.

Petron said the price reductions will come on top of the P1 per liter discount to public utility vehicle owners in about 151 gas stations nationwide.

The three major oil players — Petron, Pilipinas Shell and Chevron Philippines — announced the price cuts Tuesday night. The price rollback was implemented at 6 p.m. yesterday.

Small players Seaoil Philippines, Total, Unioil and Flying V said they would reduce their prices at the same level as the three major oil firms.

As of Sept. 26, Dubai crude, the benchmark being used by local oil refiners in pricing their products, breached the $60 per barrel level. 

For the Sept. 26 average alone, Dubai stood at $56.22 per barrel. For the period Sept. 1 to 26, the average Dubai crude was at $60.26 versus August’s $68.93 per barrel and July’s average of $69.17.

The softening of the Dubai crude came after three consecutive months of continuing rise from June’s average of $65.22 and May’s $65.

Unleaded gasoline price based on Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), the pricing gauge of oil importers, also dropped to $66.10 per barrel from August’s $81.61; July’s $85.50; $82.76 in June and May’s $86.80.

Diesel in MOPS averaged $71.31 per barrel as of Sept. 14 lower than $87.42 in August; $87.37 in July; and $87.57 in June.

Despite the rollback, prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) remained on the upward trend.

For the month of September, the international contract price of LPG averaged $560.90 per metric ton, higher than $547 in August; $502 in July and $470 in June.