Motorists with diesel-fed vehicles will experience relief as this fuel commodity will be on a hefty rollback of P3.00 to P3.20 per liter next week, based on the calculation of the oil companies.

Another product that will have significant price decline is kerosene at the scale of P2.00 to P2.20 per liter, while gasoline at modest price reduction of P0.70 to P0.90 per liter.

Industry players will implement the price reductions on Tuesday, May 17. The oil price reduction is based on the Mean of Platts of Singapore (MOPS), the pricing reference adopted by the domestic downstream oil sector.

Oil firms noted that the estimated price cutbacks have not factored in yet the fluctuation in the Philippine peso-US dollar exchange rate, as well as the cost of biofuels being blended into petroleum products retailed at the pumps.

This is just the fifth rollback in oil prices this 2022 and this trend was basically dwarfed by the 15 rounds of price hikes since the start of the year due to confluence of factors that had been triggering volatilities in international oil prices.

Prior to this round of adjustment, a monitoring report of the Department of Energy (DOE) showed that oil prices still incurred net increases of P22.00 per liter for gasoline; P34.50 per liter for diesel; and P29.75 per liter for kerosene products.

In the world market, the price of international benchmark Brent crude climbed back to $111 per barrel as of Friday, May 13, trading – that’s after its plunge to $103 to $104 per barrel on early last week. Dubai crude, which is the pricing reference for Asian market, was at $104 per barrel.

Global experts attributed the recurring upswing in prices to "market fears" that member-countries of the European Union (EU) will impose ban on Russian oil, worsening the tight supply predicament of oil markets.

It was similarly reported that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) logged another wave of "underperformance" on committed production – primarily for its member-countries Angola and Nigeria.

Another geopolitical event that re-ignited rally in prices toward the weekend is the port disruption experienced in Kazakhstan, one of the world’s major oil producers outside of OPEC’s enclave.

Conversely, market watchers emphasized that the softer prices in early days last week were mainly influenced by prospects of possible oil demand contraction after news of rising inflation in "super power" countries like the United States, as well as supply chain disruptions due to the lingering coronavirus pandemic.