The much-awaited financial breather for Filipino consumers, as prices at petroleum pumps will be on big-time rollback next week, giving Filipinos the much-awaited breather.
Based on the calculations provided by the oil companies, estimated price cuts for gasoline products will range from P1.35 to P1.50 per liter, while diesel prices will likely be reduced by P1.35 to P1.45 per liter.
Kerosene, which is generally used by residential consumers as well as key industries like aviation, will also have prospective rollback of P1.30 to P1.40 per liter.
Oil companies will be implementing the new round of price reductions on Tuesday (March 30), based on the weekly cost swings being enforced by the industry players.
The price reduction is due to the softening of prices in the world market last week because of the continued uncertainty posed by the rising coronavirus infections in many parts of the world that then prompted fresh wave of lockdowns, primarily in some jurisdictions in Europe.
There had also been pause of inoculation programs of some countries due to the “adverse effects” cited for some of the vaccines – primarily AstraZeneca, which was temporarily halted in many European countries.
The lackluster sentiment in global petroleum markets had likewise been compounded by reports of weak financial results reported by most oil companies, including that of world’s biggest oil producer Saudi Aramco as well as the multinational energy players.
Nevertheless, market watchers and experts are cautioning this early that this week’s price cutbacks may not last long; and rally in prices could be the expected in the coming days because of a ship blockage incident at Suez canal that happened earlier in the week.
Based on assessment, the ship may be refloated over the weekend, but the incident already triggered spikes in prices in latter trading days last week.
It remains to be seen though if the price escalations will be sustained into next week – and the outcomes of such may manifest in the next round of price adjustments by the first week of April.