Oil firms to roll back prices by P1

MANILA, Philippines – Oil companies will roll back the pump prices of their products by P1 per liter effective today.

Petron Corp., the country’s largest oil refiner, said the move is consistent with the continued softening of international crude prices this month.

This is the fifth rollback for the month and brings the total price cuts to P5.50 per liter for gasoline and P3.50 per liter for diesel and kerosene.

Aside from Petron, other oil firms that have announced price cuts are Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Eastern Petroleum Corp., Unioil Petroleum Corp. and Seaoil Philippines.

Chevron will reduce its world petroleum price of Caltex Gold, Silver, regular gasoline, Powerdiesel, and kerosene by P1 per liter (inclusive of value added tax) at 12:01 a.m. Saturday due to market forces in the industry.

As the market is deregulated and succumbs to competitive pressures, even without notice to media, all oil firms normally follow the move of each other, industry officials said.

On Sept. 3, Flying V said it will have a one-time rollback of P3 to P5 per liter if downward trend in prices will continue for the next couple of weeks.

Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes welcomed the move, as this will give consumers much-needed relief from a series of oil price hikes the past months.

As of yesterday, Dubai crude, benchmark of oil refiners, averaged $112.97 per barrel compared to $131.27 per barrel in July.

Unleaded gasoline at Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), a pricing gauge of oil importers, also went down to $115.41 per barrel compared to $135.27 per barrel last month.

Diesel at MOPS, on the other hand, softened to $135.37 per barrel yesterday from July’s $168.01 per barrel. – Donnabelle Gatdula