PH fuel prices fall amid supply glut

Local oil firms rolled back prices for a 10th straight week for gasoline amid a lingering supply glut and lower demand from gas-guzzling economies like China.

Petron, Shell and Seaoil said in separate advisories they cut gasoline prices by P1.10 per liter, diesel by 40 centavos per liter and kerosene by 25 centavos a liter from 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.

Phoenix Petroleum and PTT Philippines are to adjust gasoline and diesel prices by the same amount from 6 a.m. Tuesday.

Ahead of the pack, Eastern Petroleum Corp. reduced gasoline and diesel prices by P1.15 per liter and 45 centavos per liter, respectively, effective 6 p.m. Monday.

Including this week’s rollback, the country has seen 21 oil price cuts for gasoline, and 14 hikes of varying degrees since the start of 2015.

Department of Energy officer in charge Zenaida Y. Monsada told reporters that world oil prices continued to fall amid continuing oversupply in petroleum products and sluggish demand in Asia, particularly China.

Eastern Petroleum chair Fernando L. Martinez said the price cuts for gasoline and diesel reflected the continuous downward trend in world oil prices.

“The latest reduction, particularly for gasoline, reflects the continuous downward trend in global gasoline prices, while the diesel price hike is attributable to the slight increase in international diesel prices and the depreciation of the peso against the dollar,” Martinez said.

Shell country chair Edgardo O. Chua has said that oil prices would have been even lower if the peso had been stronger. On Monday, for example, the peso weakened to P46.815:$1 from P46.05 at last week’s close. It is the weakest since June 7, 2010, when the peso registered at P46.835.

Last week, oil firms implemented mixed price movements. They trimmed gasoline prices by 25 centavos per liter and raised prices for diesel by 35 centavos per liter and kerosene by 20 centavos per liter.–Riza T. Olchondra