Gasoline, diesel prices cut by P1

MANILA, Philippines - Consumers can heave a sigh of relief as local petroleum firms announced a big time rollback of more than P1 per liter for gasoline and up to P1 per liter for diesel and kerosene.

The price cut is due to softer demand and oversupply in the world market, oil company executives said yesterday.

Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. was the first to announce the price cut, which took effect midnight last night. Petron Corp., the country’s biggest oil refiner, and independent oil firms followed.

“Petron will implement the following price rollbacks effective 12:01 a.m. March 24: P1.10 pr liter for Blaze 100 Euro 4, XCS, Xtra Advance and Super Xtra, P1 per liter for Turbo Diesel and DieselMax and P0.90 per liter for kerosene. These reflect movements in the international oil market,” Petron Corp. said.

According to the Department of Energy’s oil price monitoring report, while supplies are seen tightening in Asia, new refinery capacity in the Middle East is coming on stream. “It could add volumes into the market,” the DOE report said.

Since the start of the year, adjustments summed to a net increase of P1.37 in gasoline and net decrease of P0.65 in diesel.