As Christmas holidays inch closer, Filipino consumers will receive new round of gifts at the pumps next week with petroleum prices
anticipated to have heftier rollback by Tuesday, Nov. 29, according to oil companies.
Calculation by industry players showed diesel products will have bigger price cut next week at P3.45 to P3.75 per liter, while gasoline products will be reduced by P1.15 to P1.35 per liter.
For kerosene, which is the other commodity in the triumvirate of weekly price adjustments, its price will also be trimmed by P1.95 to P2.25 per liter. This product is highly essential for key industries like aviation and even for residential consumers.
The price adjustments are based on the swing of the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) in regional trading last week, with market seeing demand getting spooked by China’s new all-time record of coronavirus infections. triggering new rounds of lockdowns for Henan and Guangdong provinces.
The Philippine peso-US dollar exchange rate, the other oil price determinant, has been at "calm territory" last week, with the local currency regaining its strength versus the greenback.
Apart from China’s "zero Covid policy", global experts noted that the other major factor which triggered substantial slide in prices had been the planned "price capping" on Russian oil by the European Union (EU) states.
EU-member countries are currently discussing plans of imposing a cap on Russian oil, although the final price point has not been decided yet, despite earlier media reports of $65 to $70 per barrel of contemplated price ceiling.
As of Friday, Nov. 25 trading, international benchmark Brent crude collapsed to as low as $83 per barrel due to continued bearish sentiment in the market, primarily on the demand side due to China’s uncertain timeframe on wider economic reopening, as well as the lingering threats of economic recession.
Market watchers emphasized that even the reported 3.7 million barrels decline in oil inventories of the United States failed to counter the continued plunge in trading prices last week.
Another geopolitical event which perturbed energy markets last week had been the skirmish on the reported move of Iran on uranium enrichment, which may then affect the "nuclear deal" it has been pursuing with the US and European countries.