Oil prices slashed anew

MANILA, Philippines - Another round of fuel price cuts took effect midnight last night and yesterday morning, a rare treat for motorists.

The latest rollback was the seventh this year and the second this month. The last price hike came two weeks ago, after nine consecutive weeks of price rollback.

Petron Corp., Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. and Chevron, owner of the Caltex brand – the so-called Big Three – were among the first to announce the price cuts of P0.80 per liter for gasoline, P0.50 per liter for diesel and P0.35 per liter for kerosene.

Other oil players such as Seaoil Philippines, Phoenix Petroleum and PTT Philippines, the local subsidiary of Thailand’s biggest oil firm, also announced price adjustments one after the other.

“Phoenix Petroleum Philippines will decrease the prices of diesel by P0.50 per liter and gasoline by P0.80 per liter effective 6 a.m. Tuesday,” Phoenix Petroleum said.

Similarly, PTT Philippines issued its advisory.

“PTT Philippines will roll back pump prices of gasoline by P0.80 per liter and of diesel by P0.50 per liter effective 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2014,” PTT said in its advisory.

The Department of Energy, in its latest oil monitoring report, said that trading of gasoline and diesel in Asia was mixed, as sustained buying interest in Indonesia was tempered by sluggish demand elsewhere in the region.

“Indonesian’s November gasoline imports are estimated at a high 11.5 million barrels, steady from October, as domestic refinery outages continue,” the report said.

“The sustained volume imported by Indonesia, along with demand from Malaysia and the Middle East, were somewhat replaced by exports by Taiwan and China, the biggest sources of gasoline last week at 159,234 and 113,703 metric tons, respectively,” the DOE report said.