Finally, there would be temporary relief in the pockets of Filipino consumers next week as diesel and kerosene prices are expected to have big-time rollback of roughly P3.00 per liter, according to calculation by the oil companies.

Estimates from the outcome of last week’s trading based on the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), the price of diesel products will likely be trimmed by P3.00 to P3.20 per liter and kerosene by P3.20 to P3.40 per liter.

For gasoline products, the projection will be a marginal rollback of P0.20 to P0.40 per liter, but if that will be gobbled up by other factors, such as the devaluation of the Philippine peso versus the US dollar, as well as premium charges and freight costs, the resulting adjustment may end up to be an increase or no price movement at all.

The industry players qualified that initial calculations have not factored in market premium, swing in logistics cost, biofuel components as well as the foreign exchange fluctuations, hence, the final price reductions may eventually be leaner.

As culled from the monitoring report of the Department of Energy (DOE), price adjustments since the start of the year so far incurred net increases of P45.90 per liter for diesel; P39.75 per liter for kerosene; and P30 per liter for gasoline products.

Global oil trading last week generally manifested decline in oil prices, but as of Friday, July 1, international benchmark Brent crude climbed anew by more than $2.00 to the level of $111 per barrel; while Dubai crude, which is the pricing reference for Asian markets had been at $113 per barrel.

Industry experts noted that the short-lived downtrend in international prices had been due to portended economic disruptions as fears of global recession had been persistently raised.

The other major factor cited had been the decision of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on its rubber-stamp raise in production by 648,000 barrels per day that shall be pumped into market starting this August.

But as global prices are inching up again, developing economies like the Philippines still struggle on their coping mechanisms, especially with the inflationary impact of relentlessly rising oil prices.

With the new leadership in government, the domestic oil industry is still grappling with the next energy policies that will confront them, but early stipulations call for the revival of the Oil Price Stabilization Fund (OPSF) as well as fuel cost unbundling to evoke pricing transparency for the consumers.