Oil firms cutting gasoline prices by P1.00/liter, diesel by 10.80
Emerging major player Phoenix Petroleum Philippines, Inc. has jumpstarted the rollback of petroleum prices this weekend, cutting gasoline price by 11.00 per liter and diesel by 10.80 per liter.
In its advisory to the media, the oil firm owned by Davao businessman Dennis Uy stated that the price rollback took effect 12 noon on May 4.
With Phoenix’s price cut, it is anticipated that the rest of the players in the deregulated downstream oil industry will follow from this weekend until Tuesday, May 7.
Prior to this rollback
in pump prices, the prevailing prices of gasoline in Metro Manila had been at the range of P51.45 to P64.41 per liter; diesel at P41.85 to P49.25 per liter; and kerosene at P46.39 to P56.60 per liter.
Global oil prices were on downward swing since the latter part of trading days around end of April following US President Donald Trump’s claim that he called the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to bring down oil prices.
Market speculations are also swirling that the “price rebalancing strategy” on production cuts of the alliance of OPEC and the Russian-led producers may finally see its end during their meeting in Vienna next month.
That will lead the global oil market into a free fall, and the general expectation of market analysts will be for prices to suffer from fresh round of price crash that may reach US$40 per barrel price level given the tough competition that US production has been driving markets on.
Dubai crude, which is the pricing reference for Asian oil refiners, went down last week. But it started climbing back again to the US$70 per barrel level at the latter part of trading days this week – entailing then that prices may be on uptrend again next week.
International benchmark Brent crude also leveled at over US$70 per barrel; while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) which is the reference for the US market, was at close to US$62 per barrel.
On the whole, there are also projections that oil supply may run tight toward the end of the year with many refineries set to prepare for the low-sulfur requirements for shipping fuel that is due for implementation next year.