Rollback seen in pump, LPG prices

MANILA, Philippines, July 3 ----- Oil firms are expected to roll back pump prices this week, while retailers are also seen reducing prices of cooking gas this month.

Cleanfuel said running trend showed a potential downward adjustment of P1 per liter for gasoline and P0.80 per liter for diesel. “For next week, we are sure that there will be a rollback,” Department of Energy (DOE) Oil Industry Management Bureau director Rino Abad said in an interview with dzBB yesterday.

Based on the first four trading days of the week, Abad said he expects a more or less P1 per liter decrease in the prices of gasoline, diesel and kerosene. He said the decline in global oil prices was brought about by signals of fresh US rate hikes, which comes following a recent surprise rate hike by the Bank of England. The final domestic pump price movements will be announced by oil companies on Monday, which will take effect the next day. Last Tuesday, oil companies hiked prices of gasoline by P0.20 per liter, diesel by P1.05 per liter and kerosene by P1.20 per liter.

The price adjustments resulted in a year-to-date net decrease of P3 per liter for diesel and P5.15 per liter for kerosene, data from the DOE showed. Gasoline, on the other hand, has a year-to-date net increase of P6.55 per liter. Meanwhile, Abad said there is also a strong chance of a continued decrease in LPG prices this July. This would be the second straight month that LPG prices will go down following a rollback implemented by retailers in June.

Last month, Petron lowered the price of its LPG by P6.20 per kilogram, Phoenix LPG Phils. Inc. dropped theirs by P6.10 per kilogram, while price of Solane-branded LPG decreased by P6.18 per kilogram. Retailers announce LPG price adjustments every end of the month.

Source: philstar.com