After successive eight weeks of price hikes, prices at domestic petroleum pumps will finally be eased with rollbacks next week in the range of P0.65 to P0.95 per liter across products.
Based on the calculation of the oil companies, gasoline prices will likely be trimmed by P0.85 to P0.95 per liter; and diesel could be reduced by P0.70 to P0.75 per liter.
For kerosene, which is the base for aviation fuel, this will also be down by P0.65 to P0.70 per liter because of new round of dampened travel because of the rising cases of Covid-19 infections triggered by the spread of the more deadly Delta variant in various parts of the world.
The oil companies will implement the price rollbacks on Tuesday (July 27); and the cost movements will be generally anchored on the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) index, as drawn up from regional trading of commodities.
Next week’s price cuts are being yearned for by many Filipino consumers, especially so since they had to wade through five weeks of price hikes in June; and another three weeks of upward adjustments in July.
According to experts, the price softening on oil commodities in the world market had been due to ‘demand weakening’, including in the United States, which is the biggest oil consumer.
Depressed demand likewise reigned in Asian markets, as many countries in the Southeast Asian regional bloc – including Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Myanmar, are now plagued with soaring Delta variant cases.
Even the Philippines is now resorting to ‘heightened movement restrictions’ in the capital and neighboring provinces, so it may still gain leverage at potentially containing what’s being feared as fatal assault of the coronavirus Delta variant in the country.
As culled from a report of the Department of Energy (DOE), pump price adjustments since the start of the year still incurred a net increase of P13.60 per liter for gasoline; P10.90 per liter for diesel; and P9.30 per liter for kerosene.
The peso-US dollar exchange rate, which is the other pricing determinant of domestic fuel prices, had been roughly steady last week, based on the energy department’s monitoring.
In the succeeding days, however, there are early forecasts that prices may rise anew as international cost movements had been on upswing again in the latter days of trading last week. ###