Oil firms cut gas, diesel prices anew

MANILA, Philippines - Petron, Chevron, Seaoil and Phoenix Petroleum are cutting their gasoline and diesel prices by 50 and 25 centavos per liter, respectively, effective today.

Company officials said Seaoil, Phoenix, and Chevron would implement their price reductions at 12:01 a.m., and Petron at 6 a.m. today.

Other companies have yet to send advisories on their price reductions.

Petron said the price rollback is consistent with the international oil price trends.

For the past week, there had been a decrease in the prices of oil in the region.

Gasoline prices slightly decreased as stocks in the United States rose by 3.6 million barrels to 224.9 million for the week ending April 16.

In Asia, however, traders are expecting naphtha prices to rise in the coming weeks as there is expected demand coming from petrochemical companies in South Korea, Taiwan and Japan.

These companies are expected to replenish their naphtha stocks beginning May.

Asian diesel prices also went down slightly as sentiments remained soft due to burgeoning physical supplies.  

Singapore onshore middle distillate stocks rose by over five percent to 11.59 million barrels for the week ending April 21.

This was coupled by increasing refinery run rates and diesel exports from Northeast Asia.

Chinese refineries have been running at record levels amid expectations of recovering demand.

South Korean refineries, meanwhile, are beginning to increase run rates as maintenance turnarounds are completed.

On the other hand, crude oil prices remained flat even as crude inventories in the United States – the world’s largest energy consumer –soared last week while finished product supplies climbed more than the forecast.