Oil firms enforce 7th rollback; diesel cut by 12.20-12.30/liter, gasoline by 11.10/liter

Oil companies have enforced a major rollback in the prices of petroleum products — 12.20 to 12.30 per liter for diesel products and 11.10 per liter for gasoline products in a series of announcements over the weekend. Kerosene price was also reduced by

12.10 per liter, according to the industry players.

As of press time, the oil firms that already announced rollbacks were Phoenix Petroleum, Shell, Seaoil and PTT Philippines – with price reductions effective from No-

vember 24 (Saturday) to November 27 (Tuesday).

Phoenix Petroleum enforced a lower price reduction for diesel at 12.20 per liter, but it was the first one to implement a rollback at 12 noon on Saturday (November 24).

Seaoil implemented its price rollbacks at 6 a.m. on Sunday (November 25); while Shell and PTT will have their prices slashed by Tuesday (November 27). The rest of the industry players are anticipated to follow.

This is already the seventh batch in a string of price rollbacks that the oil companies have been implementing since last month on account of crashing prices in the world market.

Following the market knock of US$80 to US$85 per barrel in September, global oil prices have been continually collapsing in the past weeks due to beefed up inventories in the United States.

Recent developments had somehow thwarted usual market speculations because prices were even on a downtrend during the enforcement of sanctions on Iran last November 4.

Market watchers have been highly anticipating that prices will be on the uptick by November, but it’s the reverse that happened – and this has also frustrated earlier forecasts of cost escalations heading to US$90-US$100 per barrel.

For markets depending largely on imports like the Philippines, the downtrend in prices was a very positive development – especially so since heavy spending will pre-occupy many Filipino families this Christmas season.

It is worth watching market swings if price cuts would still persist next week, given Saudi Arabia’s pronouncement that it will be cutting market exports to help winch up falling prices. (MMV)