Oil firms roll back gas, kerosene, diesel prices

MANILA, Philippines - After a series of oil price hikes the past four weeks, oil companies announced yesterday a price rollback effective 6 a.m. today.

However, the price reduction is lower than the increases implemented for the past several weeks.

Petron Corp., the market leader and the country’s biggest oil refiner, announced a 35 centavos per liter price cut for Blaze 100, XCS and Xtra Unleaded; 85 centavos per liter price cut for Pinoy Gasoline and Regular, 70 centavos per liter price cut for kerosene and a 45 centavos per liter rollback for Turbo Diesel and Diesel Max.

“This reflects movements in the international oil market,” Petron said.

Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. and Phoenix Petroleum announced similar cuts effective midnight of Feb. 25.

New player Seaoil Philippines was the first to announce price adjustments last Friday.

Prior to the price reduction, the oil firms had increased prices by 95 centavos per liter for premium gasoline, P1.15 per liter for regular gasoline, P0.70 per liter for kerosene and P0.65 per liter for diesel.

A party-list group has asked the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to look into possible pricing collaboration among the country’s oil players.

Vigor Mendoza, chairman of the transport sectoral group 1-UTAK, urged the DOE and DOJ’s Task Force on Oil Prices to look into possible pricing collaboration, saying that oil firms seem to change prices by slightly less during episodes of world price decreases.

In a letter to Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla, Mendoza, a member of the Independent Oil Price Review Committee, said “a percentage of change in the MOPS (Mean of Platts Singapore) and foreign exchange should have exactly the same percentage of change in the corresponding pump prices. In other words, oil companies did not adjust their pump prices as much as the drop in MOPS,” Mendoza said in his letter to Petilla.