Gasoline prices cut by P0.40/liter; diesel by P0.45/liter
For the fifth time in a row, Filipino motorists will enjoy lesser fuel budgets this week as the price of gasoline products will be slashed by P0.40 per liter; and diesel by P0l.45 per liter.
For kerosene products that impact greatly on the airlines industry and other key segments of end-users, this will be reduced by P0.85 per liter, according to the industry players.
As of press time, the oil companies that already announced price rollbacks had been Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation, Cleanfuel, PetroGazz, Seaoil, Chevron and PTT Philippines effective Tuesday (October 4); while their competitor-firms are anticipated to follow.
This round of price adjustments had been influenced by the seesaw of prices in the world market, which settled mainly on cost downtrends last week; while the aggravating factor had been the slide of the Philippine peso’s value versus the greenback.
As monitored by global market experts, trading prices in the initial days last week had generally softened; but there was a reverse course when trading inched close to weekend.
The depreciation of the Philippine currency, which closed at an all-time low of P58.99 last week versus the US dollar, has been persistently turning up as a worrying element for the downstream oil sector, because this entails that the industry players will be needing more pesos to purchase the required oil-barrels.
The weekly price adjustments at the petroleum pumps had been generally referenced on the swing of the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), the pricing index that the deregulated downstream oil industry has been continuously enforcing.
In anticipation of the production cuts that might be decided by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and ally-producers (OPEC+) in their October 5 meeting, international benchmark Brent crude climbed back anew to the level of $87 per barrel as of Monday (October 3) from a leaner $84 per barrel last week.
This early, there are already reports that Russia has been recommending at least 1.0 million barrels per day cutback in production by November so global oil producers could keep prices closer to $100 per barrel scale.
For the Filipino consumers, the downtrend in prices in recent weeks offered bit of good news; but any return to price upticks would dent their pockets miserably again as many are now preparing for the longest Christmas holiday season when spending will also dramatically escalate.