Another round of fuel price rollbacks seen next week

MANILA, Philippines — Motorists could see another round of pump price rollbacks next week, including a hefty reduction for diesel.

Department of Energy (DOE) Oil Industry Management Bureau assistant director Rodela Romero said estimates based on the first four trading days indicate that prices of diesel could see a downward adjustment of between P2.40 and P2.70 per liter, while gasoline prices could decline by P0.60 to P0.80 per liter.

Kerosene prices, meanwhile, are expected to go down by more than P1 per liter, or between P1.65 and P1.85 per liter.

Cleanfuel, for its part, said running trend points to rollbacks of P2.60 per liter for diesel and P0.90 per liter for gasoline next week.

Romero attributed the price drops to “demand destruction worries with falling demand of US and China’s weak exports.”

Should the forecast downward adjustments push through, it will extend the price reductions for diesel and kerosene to a third straight week, and that of gasoline to a second consecutive week.

The final price adjustments will be announced by oil companies on Monday, which will take effect the next day.

Last Tuesday, oil companies slashed prices by P1.10 per liter for diesel, P1.05 per liter for kerosene and P0.45 per liter for gasoline.

The price adjustments resulted in a year-to-date net increase of P13.75 per liter for gasoline, P9.35 per liter for diesel and P3.99 per liter for kerosene, data from the DOE showed.

DOE monitoring from Nov. 7 to Nov. 9 showed that prevailing retail prices of diesel and diesel plus products in Metro Manila ranged from P57.40 to P69.70 per liter and from P62.85 to P82.85 per liter, respectively.

Gasoline prices, meanwhile, ranged from P57.25 to P86.40 per liter, depending on the RON or research octane number of the fuel.

As for kerosene, prices monitored during the period ranged from P74 to P87.14 per liter.