Thursday, November 20, 2008 Oil firms to cut prices by P1
WITH world oil prices continue to drop, oil companies again will roll back the pump prices of their petroleum products.
Four oil companies, namely: Eastern petroleum, Petron Corporation, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation, and PTT Philippines said they will reduce the price of their gasoline, kerosene, and diesel by P1 per liter on Thursday.
Both Petron and Shell said their rollback will take effect 12:01 a.m. of November 20 while PTT said it will impose the rollback 6 a.m. of Thursday.
Fernando Martinez, president of Eastern Petroleum and head of the Independent Philippine petroleum Companies Association (IPPCA), said the decline in the prices of crude in the international market is seen to reflect on "an across the board P1 per liter rollback."
"We have to give this rollback," Martinez said in a telephone interview, adding that the P1 price cut this weekend will bring to P8 the total rollback implemented by the oil firms for this week.
"If no one will rollback, I will definitely implement the rollback," Martinez added.
He also noted that had it not been for the peso depreciation, the rollback could have been higher at P5 per liter. "But there is nothing we can do, it was eaten up by peso depreciation."
Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said the continued drop in the world oil prices should also result in the decline in the domestic prices and this must cover until next month.
Monitoring conducted by the Department of Energy (DOE) indicated that as of November 17, 2008, the average Dubai crude, dropped to US$54 per barrel from October average of US$67.
Unleaded gasoline based on Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), price gauge of oil importers, also went down to US$54 per barrel as against the US$80 per barrel average price last month.
MOPS for diesel prices similarly dropped to US$78 per barrel in November 17 from US$89 last month. (MSN/Sunnex)
