More fuel price rollbacks by weekend

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The oil companies are to roll back prices of petroleum products after midnight Friday as a supply glut and weak demand continue to hound the international market.

In separate advisories, the oil companies said they would implement the price rollback one stroke after midnight Friday or at 12:01 a.m Saturday for a fourth time in four weeks.

Petron, Chevron, and Seaoil will cut P1.65 per liter from the price of gasoline, P1.30 per liter for diesel, and P1.30 per liter for kerosene.

The Thai-led PTT Philippines said it would implement similar rollbacks for gasoline and diesel as Petron. It does not sell kerosene.

Shell will cut the price of gasoline by P1.55 per liter, diesel by P1.30 per liter and kerosene also by P1.30 per liter.

Other companies have not made formal announcements but were expected to adjust prices similarly since most of the fuel products in the Philippines are imported and are thus vulnerable to similar supply-demand and foreign exchange forces.

With the price cuts, total year-to-date price adjustment adjustment for gasoline amounts to a net decrease of P5.13 per liter while prices for diesel show a net decrease of P7 per liter.

Lower energy demand worldwide has translated to downward price pressures over the past few weeks.

Analysts said that price cuts were inevitable due to feeble growth in demand from giant commodity consumers such as the US (which has taken to producing its own fuel) and European countries such as Germany.

The International Energy Agency said this trend could stretch for the whole year. The agency has even cut its expectation of global demand growth. Earlier this month, IEA said demand could rise by just 700,000 barrels a day this year — 200,000 barrels less than last month’s growth forecast.