Gasoline prices down, kerosene up
AP FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Oil firms lowered the prices of gasoline, but raised kerosene prices effective Tuesday morning to reflect the movements of these petroleum products in the international market.
In separate statements, Shell, Chevron and Seaoil said they implemented a 35-centavo per-liter reduction in the price of gasoline and a 25-centavo per-liter increase in the price of kerosene as of 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.
However, the prices of diesel products remained unchanged.
Eastern Petroleum also said its price cut of 35 centavos per liter for its unleaded and premium gasoline took effect at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. But other product prices remained unchanged.
At 6 a.m. Tuesday, Petron lowered the price of its gasoline products by 35 centavos per liter and increased kerosene prices by 25 centavos per liter. At the same time, PTT Philippines also implemented the same price cut for gasoline while its other product prices remained unchanged.
The price changes reflected movements in the international oil markets and foreign exchange, the oil companies said.
Other companies have not announced similar price adjustments for the week as of press time. In general, however, oil firms operating in the Philippines track each other’s price movements since the country imports about 90 percent of its fuel requirements.
On July 27, oil firms lowered the prices of both gasoline and diesel to reflect softer international prices. Petron, Shell, Chevron and Seaoil announced price cuts of P1.70 per liter for gasoline and 25 centavos per liter for diesel.
Prior to that, industry experts said that while international prices trended higher on higher global demand and political volatility around oil-producing areas, price resistance was also setting in in the local market due to local price hikes for most of July.
Previous increases cited foreign exchange and international product price movements. Business leaders said entrepreneurs would bear the impact for now and expressed hope that such spikes were just temporary reactions to the volatile situation in Egypt.
