Major oil firms roll back prices by 30¢ per liter

The "Big Three" in the local oil industry reduced anew their fuel prices, the second price cut to take effect within the month.

This developed as Raul Concepcion, chairman of the influential Consumer Oil Price Watch, said a bigger price reduction of P1.32 per liter is possible next month.

Publicly listed Petron Corp. which is partly owned by the government, set the stage for the latest price decrease by announcing that it was bringing down its gasoline price by 30 centavos per liter and 20 centavos for diesel and kerosene effective midnight last night.

Not to be outdone, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. and Caltex Philippines followed suit with the same amounts of reduction.

"It is first time that we implemented two price adjustments within a month," Petron spokesman Antonio Pelayo said.

He pointed out that the price rollback signaled a change in the company’s pricing strategy.

"From the usual once-a-month movement we effected, the public could expect more frequent changes in our prices. This is being done to immediately mirror market forces and ultimately benefit consumers," Pe-layo said.

He added that yesterday’s price cutdown was "the first in a series of phased adjustments that will be implemented by Petron. "We will be adjusting again next month."

The three key major industry players along with new entrants also lowered their pump prices for gasoline by an average of 30 centavos per liter last Oct. 11.

"We usually wait for the third week of the month before we reflect the changes in the previous month’s average of the bellwether Dubai crude and the peso-dollar exchange rate. However, rather than wait for the third week of November to implement changes in crude and foreign exchange, we have decided to implement an earlier decrease in our prices to reflect market forces in a more timely and responsive manner," Pelayo said.

He added that the oil refiners have a lag time before they reflect world oil prices in local prices since it takes about a month before purchased crude oil is brought into the country, refined and distributed to retail stations nationwide.

The latest rollback was actually the 10th price movement to take place within the year, three of which involved increases while the seven were for decreases.

All told, Pelayo said Petron’s diesel fuel had a net reduction of 33 centavos per liter, while its top-of-the-line gasoline "Blaze" went down by a total of 66 centavos since January.

Among the new players, only Eastern Petroleum Corp. and Totafina Elf Philippines Inc. matched the price reduction of the three major players.

Concepcion said there was no reason for the oil companies not to bring down their prices because "this is what the market dictates."

As of Wednesday, Dubai crude prices continue to soften at $19.55 per barrel, while the average for Oct. 1 to 24 dropped to $19.77 per barrel compared to the September average of $24.12 per barrel.

Energy Secretary Vicente Perez, who is currently attending the World Energy Council meeting in Argentina, welcomed the move by oil companies.

"It comes at an appropriate time when consumers are in search for optimistic signs in the economy. It is certainly a welcome respite for the public after weeks of fear brought about by the terrorist attacks in the United States," Perez said in a statement.

The new gasoline price schedules are as follows:

Caltex: Vortex Gold, P18.04; Vortex Silver, P17.48; regular, P16.62; diesel, P13.94; and kerosene, P13.59.

Petron: Blaze, P18.59; XCS Plus, P18.11; unleaded, P17.45; diesel, P13.99; kerosene, P13.49.

Shell: Velocity, P18.47; premium, P18.07; unleaded, P17.51; regular, P16.59; diesel, P14.09; kerosene, P13.66.

Unioil: unleaded P18.14; premium, P17.59; diesel, 13.96.

Total Fina Elf: Protec, P18.13; unleaded, P17.52; and diesel, P14.13.