Budget-conscious families will gain slight flexibility in their budgets this month, as the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) will be on moderate rollback of P1.09 to P1.15 per kilogram as advised by the industry players.

Leading player Petron Corporation announced that the cost of its LPG products will be trimmed by P1.15 per kilogram effective May 1; and that will translate to P12.65 overall reduction for the standard 11-kilogram cylinder.

Solane similarly notified on its P1.09 per kilogram price reduction for its products or aggregate P11.99 for the common LPG tank purchased at households.

There had been no advisories of price adjustment for autoLPG, or the alternative fuel being used by the transport sector.

The LPG companies emphasized that this month’s downtrend in the cost of cooking fuel had been due to price softening in the international market as benchmarked on Saudi Aramco contract prices.

As explained by the Department of Energy, the Saudi Aramco contract prices reference is typically applied for LPG lifted from the Saudi ports of Yanbu, Ras Tanura and Ju’aymah that are conventionally underpinned by term supply contracts – and these are the cost swings being closely monitored in setting the base price for LPG commodities within Asian markets.

Cost swings for LPG prices are done monthly, hence, the benefit of this batch of price cuts will be felt by consumers for the rest of the month.

Prior to this round of adjustment, a monitoring report of the DOE has shown that the pick-up price of LPG had been at average P830 to P1,068 for the standard tank in various retail outlets in Metro Manila.

It was similarly culled from DOE data that retailed LPG products have been cheaper in Taguig at a price range of P830 to P1,057 per tank; while the most expensive ones have been sold at Las Pinas outlets with prices hovering at P942 to P1,068 for the typical cylinder used by households for cooking.

Lower LPG prices will be beneficial not just for household users; but even for small to medium as well as large enterprises that are into food business, because cooking fuel is a common fix in their operations.