7 Oil Companies to Roll Back Fuel Prices Tuesday

Seven oil companies — Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. (PSPC), Petron Corp., Eastern Petroleum, Phoenix Petroleum Philippines, Chevron Philippines Inc. (CPI), PTT Philippines, and Seaoil Philippines Inc. (SPI) — will roll back the pump prices of diesel by 85 centavos per liter on Tuesday.

Petron Corporation and PTT Philippines will decrease pump prices of gasoline by 55 centavos per liter, while the five other oil firms will lower their rates by 50 centavos per liter.

PSPC, Petron, CPI and SPI said that their kerosene prices will also fall by PhP1.10 per liter.

Petron will also cut Jet-A1 prices by PhP1.10 per liter.

Phoenix Petroleum Philippines will enforce the price changes by 6 a.m. Tuesday, while all of the six other companies will adjust their rates at 12:01 a.m.

Petron, Phoenix and Seaoil noted that international price movements contributed to the price changes.

Last week, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil for April delivery opened trading with a plunge from USD50 per barrel on March 9 then increased slightly to USD48.29 on March 10.

The fall was sustained at USD48.17 per barrel on March 11 until it further decreased to USD44.84 on March 13.

In February, low oil prices rose due to a forecast slowdown in the United States economy and the strike of oil workers in American refineries.

On Monday, reports said that Royal Dutch Shell and its workers have reached a tentative agreement to a new contract regarding pay, worker safety and other matters.

The halt on the strikes will likely affect oil prices, which are still down mainly due to the oversupply noted by the Energy Information Agency (EIA) at 60 percent of America’s total oil storage.

Last year, the oversupply resulting from shale oil’s emergence in North America forced the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to level their crude pricing with shale to retain its customers.

Saudi Arabia later on decided to lower discounts to its Asian customers, while increasing discounts to European customers.

It explained the lower rollbacks in Asia and the Philippines as well, compared to last December’s rates of PhP2 per liter.

Last Friday, the EIA predicted with 95 percent certainty that oil prices would play between USD30 and USD100 per barrel this year. The rate is still possible with WTI per barrel playing at USD44 as of Monday.

According to the Department of Energy’s oil price monitor as of March 10 in Metro Manila, diesel had a common price of PhP30.25 per liter, but was selling from PhP28.05 to PhP31.35.

Gasoline prices, on the other hand, were monitored at PhP38.90-PhP44.45 a litter, with a common price of PhP43.10 around Metro Manila. (PNA) SCS/JLD