Oil companies trim prices

The lingering oil glut has prompted oil companies to reduce prices this week.

Petron, Shell and Seaoil said in separate advisories that they had implemented the following price rollback: 60 centavos per liter on gasoline, 50 centavos per liter on diesel and 60 centavos per liter on kerosene products.

The adjustments started at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, June 2.

Phoenix Petroleum, PTT Philippines and Eastern Petroleum implemented similar price cuts for gasoline and diesel at 6 a.m. for the former and at 12:01 a.m. for the latter two.

They do not sell kerosene products.

For household fuel, Isla Petroleum and Gas Corp. implemented a P2 per kilogram rollback on its Solane-branded liquefied petroleum gas or LPG. The adjustment started on 12:01 a.m. of June 1.

Petron implemented a similar price cut on its household LPG and a P1.12 per liter rollback on AutoLPG.

From January, total adjustments presently stand at a net increase of P4.28 for gasoline and P1.01 for diesel. LPG is at a net decrease of P6.60 per kg.

International reports so far point to expectations of sustained high oil supply given robust output from petroleum exporting countries in May.

Prices thus eased despite declining rig operations in the United States.

Oil output by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) likely hit a two-and-a-half year high of 31.22 million barrels per day (bpd) in May and production is not expected to be cut during the group’s  meeting this week, reports said.