Oil firms roll back pump prices anew

MANILA, Philippines - Oil firms announced a hefty price rollback effective today on the back of the continued decline in global crude prices.

In separate advisories issued yesterday, local petroleum companies said oil prices would go down by P1.70 per liter for gasoline and P1.50 per liter for diesel. They also implemented a P1.60 per liter rollback for kerosene.

Petron Corp., the country’s biggest oil refiner; Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp.; and Chevron Philippines, owner of the Caltex brand, were among the first to issue their respective advisories.

Independent oil firms Phoenix Petroleum, Seaoil Philippines, Eastern Petroleum and PTT Philippines also issued similar announcements.

“Petron will implement the following price rollbacks: P1.70 per liter for Blaze 100 Euro 4, XCS, Xtra Advance and Super Xtra, P1.50 per liter for Turbo Diesel and DieselMax and P1.60 per liter for kerosene. These reflect movements in the international oil market,” Petron said.

Phoenix Petroleum Philippines said it will decrease the prices of gasoline by P1.70 per liter and diesel by P1.50 per liter “to reflect the continued softening in the prices of petroleum products in the world market.”

PTT said it rolled back prices of gasoline products by P1.70 per liter and of diesel by P1.50 per liter.”

This is the second oil price rollback for the year following the 95 centavos per liter price cut for gasoline and 80 centavos per liter cut for diesel last week, which also resumed the series of price cuts enjoyed by motorists last year.

It was only on Dec. 30, 2014 that petroleum players increased gasoline prices again by 30 centavos per liter and kerosene prices by 10 centavos per liter but kept diesel prices unchanged.

With the price cut, the average common price of gasoline will go down to P40.30 per liter from P42 while the common price of diesel will go down to P29.90 per liter from P31.40, based on the latest oil price monitoring report of the Department of Energy (DOE).

In its report, the DOE said the markets in Asia and Middle East continue to have ample supply. 

“Healthy refining margins keep production steady but regional demand could not soak up the available supply,” the DOE said. The benchmark Dubai crude has dropped to $60 per barrel.