Consumers will be greeted with a ‘mixed bag’ of price adjustments at the pumps next week, with rollback for gasoline and diesel prices seen to be on continued track, but kerosene prices will have slight upward adjustment.

Based on the calculation of the oil companies, the price of gasoline products will be pared by P0.25 to P0.55 per liter; while diesel prices will either stay at current prices or there would be very marginal reduction of P0.10 per liter.

For kerosene prices, the calculation takes a reverse course, with anticipated increase of P0.10 to P0.40 per liter, according to the oil companies.

It could be gleaned from the outcome of four-day trading in the regional market - as anchored on the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) - that the estimated adjustments had been P0.531 per liter rollback for gasoline products, and diesel prices will be trimmed by P0.121 per liter; while kerosene will increase by P0.112 per liter.

The continuing rollback in gasoline and diesel prices would still bring cheers to Filipino consumers; and the projected hike in kerosene prices will not also come heavy on consumers’ pockets next week.

A monitoring report of the Department of Energy (DOE) has shown that prices since the start of the year already posted net increases of P7.25 per liter for gasoline and P4.20 per liter for diesel; while kerosene prices logged net reduction of P1.65 per liter.

As noted by industry experts, the uptick in US inflation data had partly suppressed prices in the international market because that will have impact on the purchasing power of consumers of the world’s biggest economy.

In the initial trading days, global prices have been on their escalation pace due to forecast increase in gasoline demand for their driving season as well as reports on China’s higher consumption, but that had been muted by other economic fundamentals toward end-week trading.

For international benchmark Brent crude, in particular, it was already taking its ascend into the $84 per barrel territory as of Monday (May 13) trading, but it was pounded back to $82 per barrel level by Thursday (May 16).

In the Asian market, it was emphasized that China’s diesel demand had been on downtrend due to the growing electrification of its truck fleets and there is also lower demand for this fuel type in their construction activities.