Pump prices are on a mega-rollback again this week, with the cost of diesel cut by P2 to P2.10 per liter and gasoline and kerosene by P2 per liter.
Early birds were Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. and PTT Philippines, which both enforced heftier price reduction for diesel at P2.10 per liter compared to the P2 per liter of competitors.
They followed the P2 price rollback trend for gasoline.
Both price reductions are effective 6 a.m. tomorrow.
Petrogazz also reduced gasoline and diesel prices by P2 per liter effective 6 a.m. tomorrow.
The rest of the industry players are anticipated to follow.
The string of price reductions at Philippine oil pumps is still attributed to the unremitting price crash in the world market – which is reminiscent of the 2014 collapse of the oil industry.
Based on the monitoring report of the Department of Energy, the niggling trade war between China and the United States mainly triggered the dip in international prices.
Nevertheless, there is already caution that price downtrends may hit countervailing pace in the coming weeks with planned fresh round of “market rebalancing” underpinned anew by proposed cutbacks in production to be led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its Russian ally.
Market developments are closely being watched at the weekend G20 Summit of the world’s biggest economies, in which they have been trying to fix the Herculean Washington-Beijing fiasco.
In terms of oil supply-demand balance, the Paris, France-headquartered International Energy Agency recently reported that the US has been continuously flooding the market with increased inventories, which went up by 3.6 million barrels last week alone. In sum, US crude inventory stands at 450.5 million barrels. (Myrna Velasco)
