Pump prices nearing pretax reform levels, but will downtrend continue?
Pump prices in the Philippines remain on a downtrend while prices of Dubai crude hint at an upward turn on the heels of a new pact for production cuts among members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and allies.
Most local oil firms have announced a price reduction of 25 centavos for diesel and 15 centavos for gasoline starting Tuesday. As of this writing, these include Shell, Caltex, Total and PTT.
But Phoenix Petroleum and Seaoil Philippines were the first movers, slashing pump rates by 30 centavos for diesel and 15 centavos for gasoline on Saturday. Eastern Petroleum announced a reduction of 35 centavos for diesel.
Diesel prices have been on a downtrend for 10 straight weeks already and now cost just P3.95 per liter higher than pretax reform prices.
Gasoline now costs just P2.77 per liter more than the prices during the last week of December 2017, or just before the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law took effect.
Based on monitoring by the Department of Energy, the latest movements brought prices of diesel within the range of P36.20 to P40.54 per liter.
Prices of gasoline with an octane rating of 95 are now in the range of P42.05 to P52.67 per liter.
Earlier this month, Opec, along with a group of non-Opec producers including Russia, agreed to reduce their collective output by a total of 1.2 million barrels per day.
This move followed a price crash that sent Brent crude—the de facto global benchmark—to $58 per barrel early this month from $86 per barrel in early October.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the latest of the so-called Opec+ agreement put “a floor” beneath oil prices.
“Cooperation between Russia and Saudi Arabia is now the basis of production management with these two countries having a large capacity to swing output one way or the other,” the IEA said.
Russia is the second biggest oil producer in the world after the United States. Saudi Arabia is the third biggest, and the top producer among Opec members.
Quoting the US Energy Information Administration, IEA said the United States during the last week of November was a net exporter of crude and petroleum products for the first time since 1991.
