At A Glance
- Price surges at domestic pumps will partly cool off next week.<br>Gasoline prices will rise by P0.70 to P1.00 per liter.<br>Diesel prices may not change, with a marginal reduction of P0.03 per liter.<br>Kerosene prices will increase modestly by P0.35 to P0.65 per liter.<br>Price adjustments are scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 22.<br>Adjustments will be based on the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) index, reflecting trends in fuel commodities' trading in the Asian region.
Price surges at the domestic pumps will partly cool off next week, as the adjustments will be relatively moderate, based on the calculation of the oil companies.
According to the industry players, gasoline prices will rise by P0.70 to P1.00 per liter; while diesel prices may not change because the calculated reduction was just at very marginal P0.03 per liter.
Kerosene prices will remain on the uptrend, but the increase will just be modest at P0.35 to P0.65 per liter, as estimated by the oil firms.
The price adjustments are scheduled on Tuesday (Aug. 22) and it will be anchored on the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), an index which reflects trends on fuel commodities’ trading in the Asian region.
Experts in the global oil sector noted that “there was some sort of backwardation” in the outcome of trading last week, and that was primarily traced to the re-emergence of concerns on China’s economic growth slowdown as concretely measured by its weakening property and manufacturing sectors, as well as its dilemma on unemployment and deflation.
Backwardation is a phenomenon in markets wherein the price of a commodity is typically higher than their traded value for futures contracts.
It was similarly emphasized that the divided stance of the Federal Reserve members on interest rate hikes affected market sentiments primarily for the United States as the biggest oil consumer in the world, hence, that precipitated overall downswing in oil prices.
International benchmark Brent crude, in particular, has retreated to the $84 per barrel territory as of Friday (Aug. 18) trading from a peak of $87 per barrel in recent weeks.
Softer prices reigned in markets last week despite slipping global oil inventories and the production cuts enforced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its ally-producers (collectively known as OPEC+).
In the Philippine downstream oil sector, the new round of adjustments this week may be lower, but it is highly anticipated that the grumbles of the public transport sector on fare hikes may not ease yet.