Motorists – primarily the public transport sector that relies heavily on diesel – will have financial relief this week as local oil firms are reducing diesel prices by P1.10 per liter.
Oil firms will also reduce gasoline prices by a leaner P0.50 per liter.
Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc., the oil company of flourishing business magnate Dennis Uy, was first to reduce prices effective 2 p.m. yesterday, followed by Clean Fuel, with the same scale of rollbacks for both diesel and gasoline products at 4 p.m. today.
The rest of the industry players are anticipated to go along with dictates of market forces but majority of them are expected to enforce price reductions on their Tuesday routine or Aug. 13.
The Department of Energy indicated that there was a considerable downswing in prices in the world market, warranting the price declines at Philippine pumps.
Dubai crude in particular, which is the pricing benchmark for Asian refiners, had softened to the level of $55 per barrel in recent trading days, compared to the higher pitch of $59 to $60 per barrel in the past weeks.
Global market analysts have noted the oil industry’s incessant plunge into the “bear territory” with no definitive green shoots of stable recovery yet despite commitment of oil producers to stick to the output quota that they had agreed upon.
Beyond the production freeze deal that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries had reached with its Russian-led counterparts, the international oil market still deals with bigger blows such as the escalating trade war between the United States and China and the relentless strike of geopolitical factors affecting supply-demand dynamics in the industry. (Myrna Velasco)
