This week, it’s a rollback for fuel prices

Oil firms rolled back prices this week as demand continued to lag behind supply in the international market.

Major oil firms Petron and Shell implemented price cuts of 35 centavos per liter for gasoline, 50 centavos a liter for diesel and 45 centavos per liter for kerosene from 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday.

Phoenix Petroleum lowered gasoline prices by 35 centavos per liter and diesel by 50 centavos a liter from 6 a.m. Tuesday.

Minor oil firm Eastern Petroleum Corp. beat them all to the punch, trimming its gasoline and diesel prices by 35 centavos and 50 centavos, respectively, from 6 p.m. on Monday.

At low levels

Eastern Petroleum chair and CEO Fernando L. Martinez said oil markets were weak at the close of last week’s trading.

“Oil prices were relatively at low levels at the close of last week’s trading amid Kuwait’s—a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries—pronouncement that it would take time for the market to balance, as oil producers defend market share over output cuts to bolster prices,” Martinez said.

Since January, the net adjustment for gasoline reverted to an increase of 41 centavos per liter, while diesel decreased by P3.14 a liter. Household cooking gas LPG remained at a net decrease of P10.60 per kilogram.

Wiped out

Last week, oil firms raised gasoline prices slightly while leaving other products untouched. Two weeks ago, oil firms imposed huge oil price hikes (P1.75 per liter for gasoline, P1.95 per liter for diesel and P1.85 per liter for kerosene) that virtually wiped out 11 straight weeks of rollbacks.

Oil industry experts remained cautious about whether the rally signaled that the oil price decline is over.

“In the Asian gasoil/diesel market, fundamentals were reportedly steady with the oversupply still casting a shadow on the market, while demand remained generally stable. The Singapore gasoil market is partially supported by recent refinery run cuts in North Asia and unexpected plant outages, which pulled up the East-West spread,” according to a Department of Energy report citing energy industry watcher Platts.