Diesel prices seen to go down

Diesel prices are expected to go down by around 40 or 50 centavos this week but gasoline prices may go up by a commensurate amount, oil industry executives said.

Ahead of other oil firms, Eastern Petroleum has said it may roll back diesel prices by around 50 to 60 centavos per liter and hike gasoline by around 30 centavos per liter. Over the weekend, the independent oil firm said it was finalizing prices for the new week but that final quotes would not be far from initial estimates.

Eastern Petroleum chair Fernando L. Martinez said the adjustments were due Monday morning and anticipated the development to “deflate” calls for transport fare hikes.

Other oil firms have neither announced a diesel rollback or gasoline price hike.

After two straight weeks of increases amid high commodity prices, the diesel rollback is reportedly due to softer demand for heating oil in international trading. The rollback range of 40 to 50 centavos per liter was based on the five-day MOPS (Mean of Platts Singapore) average in the trading week of Dec. 9-13.

The MOPS is the benchmark for Philippine fuel products, which are mostly imported.

Despite the seesaw adjustment, industry experts say that fuel prices are generally stable and still lower than 2008 when oil, metal, rice and other commodities surged to unsustainable levels.

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