Oil prices still falling

MANILA, Philippines - Oil price rollbacks aren’t over yet.

After announcing an oil price hike last week, local petroleum players announced yesterday another round of price cuts of 95 centavos per liter for gasoline and 80 cents per liter for diesel effective today.

Petron Corp., the country’s biggest oil refiner, was the first to issue the price cut announcement.

“Petron will implement the following price rollbacks effective 12:01 a.m., Jan. 5: P0.95 per liter for Blaze 100 Euro 4, XCS, Xtra Advance and Super Xtra; P0.80 per liter for Turbo Diesel and Diesel Max, and P1.25 per liter for kerosene. These reflect movements in the international oil market,” Petron said.

Other petroleum companies issued similar announcements, including PTT Philippines, the local subsidiary of Thailand’s biggest oil firm, and

Phoenix Petroleum Philippines, an independent oil company whose adjustments took effect at 6 a.m. today.

Both cited the softening in the prices of refined oil products in the world market.

The first oil price rollback for the year came on the heels of a hike in local petroleum prices last Dec. 30, which ended the series of oil price cuts enjoyed by consumers for at least 26 times in 2014.

Petroleum players at the time increased gasoline prices by P0.30 per liter and kerosene by P0.10 per liter but kept diesel prices unchanged.

For now, the average common price of diesel has gone down to P31.40 per liter while gasoline is at P42 per liter, according to data from the Department of Energy.