The squeeze on consumers’ pockets at the pumps will be leaner after all as global oil prices suddenly crashed at end-week trading on Friday (September 27), according to the oil companies.

The industry players estimated that gasoline price increase had softened to P0.10 to P0.50 per liter, although for diesel prices, it would still be a relatively significant rise of P0.55 to P0.95 per liter; and kerosene will also go up by P0.25 to P0.65 per liter.

If reckoned purely on the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) index, the calculated adjustment had been at P0.122 per liter for gasoline; P0.592 per liter for diesel; and P0.292 per liter for kerosene products.

The oil companies will be adjusting their prices on Tuesday (October 1) based on the routine price swings which already became the grind of business for the deregulated downstream oil industry.

Earlier forecasts on price hikes would have been heftier, but since prices in the world market considerably plunged in the remaining two days of trading, that will also have spillover effect in cost movements at the Philippine pumps.

According to industry experts, international prices took a nosedive on fears of oversupply following news on Saudi Arabia’s move of retaking its share in the global oil market.

In earlier trading days, the economic stimulus unveiled by China as well as the anticipated impact of hurricane Helene in the United States prompted market sentiments on the upside, but that shifted following reported higher production that Saudi Arabia has been aiming for.

Market watchers indicated that the plan of the world’s biggest oil producer has been widely perceived as an abandonment of its earlier target for higher priced oil, which was previously set at least within the range of $100 per barrel level.

With Saudi Arabia’s propounded production hike, industry traders similarly foresee  that its partner-producers in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would finally concretize output raise as targeted by December this year.

As of Friday, international benchmark Brent crude dipped by more than $3 to $71 per barrel level, from a high of $75 that it hit in earlier trading days.

For an import-dependent economy like the Philippines, an oversupply resulting in cheaper prices will be a beneficial development because this is also seen precipitating more instances of rollbacks than price hikes.