Another gas, diesel rollback to take effect Tuesday

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Oil firms have decided to reduce the prices of major fuel products gasoline and diesel this week as the local market expected following recent price declines.

Major oil firms Petron, Shell, and Chevron have announced in separate advisories they will trim prices of gasoline and diesel by P0.40 per liter and kerosene by P0.50 per liter from 12:01 a.m., Tuesday, August 26. This is the seventh week of gasoline price cuts and the second straight week for diesel.

Thai-led PTT Philippines have advised the public it will implement the same price adjustments for gasoline and diesel from 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. PTT Philippines does not retail kerosene.

Phoenix Petroleum, among the largest independent oil firms in the country, said it would implement similar price cuts for gasoline and diesel starting 6 a.m. Tuesday. It does not retail kerosene products.

Eastern Petroleum is implementing heftier adjustments. It announced in an advisory cuts in the prices of gasoline and diesel by P0.50 per liter starting 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.

Other oil firms are expected to also roll back diesel and kerosene prices since nearly all the fuel sold domestically are imported, making local pump prices vulnerable to international prices movements.

Over the weekend, oil industry sources estimated that the rollback would be in the range of P0.35 to P0.40 per liter on diesel and P0.40 to P0.50 per liter on gasoline.

Including the price movements this week, the year-to-date total adjustments stand at a net decrease of P3.35 per liter for diesel and about P2.75 per liter for gasoline.

Traders were temporarily spooked on August 18 as tensions rose along Russia’s border with eastern Ukraine, a major route for Russian gas to Western Europe. Pro-Russian separatists are pushing for Moscow’s control over Kiev, but Russia has denied involvement and is not expected to add forces to the skirmishes between the rebels and Kiev’s forces.

Libya has improved oil production despite broad unrest and reports out of Iraq that oil supplies coming from the southern part of the country remain generally unaffected by sectarian violence up north.