Oil prices down next week

MANILA, Philippines — Pump prices are seen going down next week, with a hefty rollback possibly in store for diesel and kerosene.

Rino Abad, Department of Energy’s oil industry management bureau director, said chances are high for a rollback in the prices of gasoline, diesel and kerosene next week based on the first four trading days of the week.

He estimates a price reduction of not more than P0.50 per liter for gasoline and a decrease of around P1.50 per liter for both diesel and kerosene.

“There is a trend that demand is going down in the first quarter,” Abad said in an interview with dzBB yesterday.

“If China does not control its COVID cases for the next two months, then chances that prices will further go down become higher. So it depends on how fast China can recover,” he added.

Cleanfuel, for its part, said the running trend as of Jan. 5 showed a possible reduction of P0.50 per liter in gasoline prices and a decrease of P2.20 per liter for diesel.

The final price adjustments will be announced by oil companies on Monday and will take effect the day after.

Should the forecast rollbacks push through, it will end the three straight weeks of increases for gasoline and kerosene, while also preventing two consecutive weeks of price hike for diesel.