Oil firms to roll back prices Monday

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Oil firms announced cuts in pump prices effective 12:01 a.m. Monday.

Shell and Petron said via text messages they will be rolling back prices of premium and unleaded gasoline by P0.25 a liter, diesel by P0.55 a liter and kerosene by P0.70 a liter.

The Department of Energy’s last monitoring of domestic oil prices showed retail prices in Metro Manila stood between P48.55 and P54.84 per liter for gasoline and P38.80 and P41.74 per liter for diesel before this latest announcement.

Fuel prices have been declining for about a month now, according to the Department of Energy’s Oil Monitor. Local oil firms are vulnerable to global prices since they import most of their product inputs.

The report attributed the softening prices to ample supplies and continuing concerns over the financial crisis in Europe. Industrial sectors across the 17 eurozone economies are faring worse than expected, the report said.

At the same time, the USDOE Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected increase in U.S. crude inventories.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) and Opec Oil Market Report, meanwhile, trimmed their demand projections for March 2013.

The IEA cited “continued deterioration in the European economic environment, signs of a potential slowdown in China and automatic US government spending cuts” as reasons for a soft outlook on prices.

Also for March 2013, the Opec Oil Market Report cut its world demand estimate for Opec crude.

U.S. dollar appreciation of 0.4 percent compared to “a basket foreign currencies” was also cited as a factor since a stronger greenback prompts lower oil demand and prices as oil becomes more expensive for holders of other currencies.