Petron, Shell, et al cut pump prices before holiday

MANILA, Philippines – Motorists will be enjoying another oil price rollback for this month in time for the holidays.

Companies Petron Corp., Phoenix Petroleum Philippines, Inc., Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., and Seaoil Philippines, Inc. announced that they will cut prices of the following effective 12:01 A.M. Monday, October 29:

• unleaded and premium gasoline by P2.15 per liter
• regular gasoline by P1.70 per liter
• diesel and kerosene by P1.35 per liter

Independent player Eastern Petroleum, on the other hand, will implement a rollback of P2 a liter for premium gasoline, P1.75  for regular gasoline and P1.35 for diesel and kerosene.

This reflects the downtrend in world oil prices, which in turn caused the local oil prices to go down since September, the companies said.

Last month, there were 4 price adjustments that led to price cuts in unleaded and premium gasoline by P1.35 per liter, regular gasoline by P1.95 per liter, diesel by P0.65 per liter, and kerosene by P0.70 per liter.

For October, considering all price rollback in the previous weeks, oil companies have already reduced the price of unleaded and premium gasoline by P1.15 per liter, P0.85 per liter for regular gasoline, P1.35 per liter for diesel and, one-peso per liter for kerosene.

This series of price reduction on oil prices this year reflects the results of a study by the Independent Oil Price Review Committee (IOPRC), which showed that local fuel prices are already at par with neighboring countries like Thailand.

“Deregulation has resulted in increased responsiveness of local oil prices to world oil prices,” said Dr. Benjamin Diokno, former budget secretary and current head of the OPRC.

Diokno said there is nothing extraordinary about the movements of local oil prices in the country. “Gasoline prices are higher in the Philippines compared to Thailand in recent years because of the subsidy. It is estimated that fuel subsidies [including for electricity] in Thailand have cost as much as 2.7 percent of gross domestic product [GDP] per year in the past two years,” he said. – Rappler.com