Oil firms cut gas prices anew

MANILA, Philippines - Oil firms led by Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. and Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Corp. have cut pump prices as world crude prices continue to drop.

Shell and Phoenix were the first to announce effective today a price rollback of 80 centavos per liter for diesel, 20 centavos per liter for regular and unleaded gasoline, and 55 centavos per liter for kerosene.

Aside from weak demand causing global oil prices to temper, the strengthening of the peso also helped ease domestic oil prices.

Zenaida Monsada, Department of Energy oil industry management bureau director, said should prevailing weak demand persist early next year, oil prices would likely continue to soften.

Domestic oil price trend would also be dependent on how the Europe and US economies behave, she added.

Any supply disruption in the Middle East would also take its toll on local market, Monsada said.

Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla said they would also be coming up with an updated oil price monitoring in the DOE website to ensure transparency in pricing in the local oil industry.

The updated version of the DOE’s oil price monitoring would include comparative prices in the provinces and in Metro Manila, he added.

Petilla said aside from the oil data that would be available to the public, they would also come up with pertinent information on power so the general public would be abreast of things that they need to know about electricity pricing.

“We are hoping to come up with information that we could share to the public,” he said.

“All data that would be furnished to DOE, we will be putting them at our website for everybody to see.”

Transparency in oil and power pricing would lead to less confusion among the general public, the government and private sector, Petilla said.

Prior to the recent price cut, premium, unleaded and premium plus unleaded gasoline were being sold at P47.65 to P57.10 per liter.

Diesel, at current prices, sells at P40.50 to P44.80 per liter while kerosene is at P49.00 to P55.08 per liter.

Prices vary depending on the location of the station, brand and market forces.