Motorists will have another week of just slightly happy drive to the pumps this week as the price of diesel products will be on rollback by marginal P0.20 per liter; while gasoline prices will be reduced by a token P0.10 per liter.

Additionally, kerosene products will be slashed by relatively moderate P0.45 per liter, based on the pricing advisories of the oil companies.

As of press time, the industry players that already sent notices on their price cuts effective Tuesday (August 6) had been Shell Pilipinas Corporation and Seaoil Philippines; while their competitor-firms are all anticipated to follow.

Prior to this round of adjustment, a monitoring report of the Department of Energy (DOE) has shown that cost swings at the domestic pumps since the start of the year already logged net increases of P9.60 per liter for gasoline, P6.85 per liter for diesel and P0.30 per liter for kerosene products.

Owing to the declaration of state of calamity in areas pummeled by typhoon Carina, the DOE similarly reminded oil companies that price freeze is still being enforced for kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) within 15-day period as prescribed under the Price Act.

However, since kerosene prices will be on downtrend, the rollback must still be implemented and it will just be the P0.30 per kilogram increase in LPG prices that must not be imposed until the lapse of the period covered by the state of calamity declaration.

According to industry experts, prices in the international market softened last week as concerns on demand slowdown reigned as sentiment among traders, mainly due to lower than expected economic data posted by key economies, primarily China.

Despite renewed tension in the Middle East, oil markets had not seen immediate escalation of friction that will largely affect trade flow in the industry, hence, that had not been given as much weight in last week’s market outcomes.

It was noted that the lack of retaliation from Iran following Israel’s new wave of strike in Lebanon as well as the assassination of a Hamas political leader somehow calmed oil markets, therefore, that did not result in price upticks.

On the realm of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and ally-producers (OPEC+), their August 1 online meeting prompted them to stick to existing policy on production cuts, thus, there had been no added factor that surprised oil markets toward end-week trading.