Consumers’ trip to the petroleum pumps will be less painful this week, as the oil companies implemented relatively significant rollback in prices.

Based on the pricing adjustment notices of the industry players, the price of diesel products will be trimmed by P0.90 per liter, gasoline by P0.75 per liter; and kerosene prices by P1.05 per liter.

As of press time, the oil firms that already advised on their price cuts effective Tuesday (May 7) had been Shell Pilipinas Corporation, Seaoil Philippines, Cleanfuel, PetroGazz and Chevron; while their competitor-firms are anticipated to follow.

Prior to this round of adjustment, a monitoring report of the Department of Energy (DOE) has shown that prices since the start of the year still logged net increases of P10.00 per liter for gasoline; P5.60 per liter for diesel and P0.25 per liter for kerosene.

According to global experts, prices in the world market were generally on downtrend last week due to array of factors which precipitated bearish sentiment on demand; while supply was being shored up.

In particular, there was uptick in inflation rate in the US which raised concern on its demand moving forward; while there was also ongoing ceasefire talks to prospectively ease the Israel-Iran war, including attacks on commercial vessels at the Red Sea.

Additionally, there had been crude inventory buildup also in the US market; while Mexico reversed its decision on export cuts, hence, that gave added assurance on well-supplied oil markets.

As of Monday (May 6) trading, international benchmark Brent crude was still steady at $83 per barrel level and there are no apparent factors yet that could ignite fresh round of upticks in global oil prices.

And while there had been good news welcoming consumers at the pumps this week, it’s not as rosy in the power sector, as new wave of yellow alert or a scenario of insufficiency of power reserves has been raised again on Monday for Luzon grid, the country’s economic center.

When it comes to tariffs, electricity consumers are bracing for ‘electric shock’ when they start receiving their bills this May – with both government and the power utilities warning of highly probable rate spikes.