Consumers will experience a mixed bag of adjustments at the pumps this week, as the price of diesel products will moderately roll back to P0.40 per liter, while gasoline prices will rise marginally to P0.10 per liter.

For kerosene, it will also be in a favorable swing as the price of this commodity will be reduced by a relatively heftier P0.70 per liter, according to the pricing advisories of the oil companies.

As of press time, the industry players that already sent notices on their cost movements at the pumps effective Tuesday, July 23, had been Shell Pilipinas Corporation, Cleanfuel, Seaoil, PetroGazz, and Chevron, while their competitor firms are anticipated to follow.

This week’s price seesaw followed a string of three-week price declines. Hence, consumers temporarily enjoyed financial reprieve before their wallets were slightly squeezed again, especially for motorists using gasoline products.

As emphasized by global experts, prices in the world market softened last week due to resurgence of concerns on demand slowdown following China’s report of lower-than-expected economic data.

Being the world’s second biggest economy, the scale of consumption in China will always exert pricing pressure on international oil commodities – especially if there will be escalation or downtrend on its economic growth.

Nevertheless, the decline in global prices was not able to sustain momentum because there were other factors providing counterweight to projected demand deceleration – primarily the call of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and ally-producers (OPEC+) to enforce more rigid compliance on agreed production cuts.

As of Friday (July 19) trading, international benchmark Brent crude climbed back to $85 per barrel anew, following its slight drop $84 per barrel in some trading days last week.

In the regional market, investigations were being pursued last week on the reported collision of two tankers that caught fire in Singapore – one of which was supposedly carrying Iranian oil for delivery into markets.

At this stage, there are no clear indications yet where prices will be leading in trading days ahead; thus, consumers can only guess what would be their next fate at the gas pumps next week.