DoE initially clears oil firms of overpricing

MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Energy has initially cleared local oil companies over allegations of overpricing fuel products during the Holy Week.

“Preliminarily, the (oil price) adjustments were within the movements of international oil prices. But we want to ensure that, so we will have to consult with the Department of Justice, since it’s a joint DoE-DoJ Task Force,” said Energy Undersecretary Jose M. Layug Jr.

“We made the review wider to include not just the Holy Week this year, but also those in the past, to determine if there was an abuse or not,” Layug added.

The energy official declined to cite further details since the DoE has yet to meet with the DoJ next week to present the agency’s initial findings.

Last April, the DoE asked oil companies to justify the price increases amid complaints that these were based on flimsy reasons and because these were higher than the energy agency’s own computations.

These oil firms included Pilipinas Shell, Chevron, Total Philippines, PTT Philippines, Jetti, Cityoil, Galaxi Petroleum, Seaoil Philippines, Phoenix Petroleum and Unioil Petroleum Philippines Inc.

Companies had raised on April 19 prices of gasoline by 60 centavos per liter, of kerosene by 40 centavos a liter and of diesel by 25 centavos a liter. The DoE’s computations however, showed that increases should only be around 16 centavos per liter for diesel and 39 centavos a liter for gasoline.

The DoE-DoJ Task Force had then stepped in and asked oil companies to open up records. It also did its own calculations to determine whether there was abuse or not. If oil companies were to be proven to have committed an abuse in fuel pricing, the case would be brought to court, Energy Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras earlier said.

The weekly price movements in fuel products—gasoline, diesel, kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)—are currently benchmarked on the Dubai crude and the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) benchmark for refined petroleum products.

These same benchmarks are also being used by the DoE to determine every week whether the adjustments were fair and accurate. The DoE earlier assured the public that it continues to strictly monitor local fuel prices to prevent any abuses.