Mixed movements in pump prices seen next week
MANILA, Philippines — Another round of mixed adjustments in pump prices could be implemented by oil companies next week, while cooking gas prices will remain the same this month.
“For four-day trading of the MOPS (Mean of Platts Singapore), there will be mixed movements in the prices of petroleum products next week,” Department of Energy (DOE) Oil Industry Management Bureau assistant director Rodela Romero said.
Romero said estimates indicate a possible increase of P0.25 to P0.45 per liter for gasoline and a potential rollback of P0.20 to P0.40 per liter for diesel.
Kerosene prices, meanwhile, are seen to have no movement or a potential increase of P0.10 per liter.
An oil industry source, on the other hand, said indicative price movement for next week is a reduction of between P0.30 and P0.40 per liter for diesel and a possible upward adjustment of between P0.25 and P0.35 per liter for gasoline.
Romero said reasons for the expected adjustments are the speculations that OPEC+ will extend or deepen supply cut based on their proposed output policy.
“The increase is compounded by a storm-related drop in Kazakhstan oil output, and softer US dollar and decline in US inventories,” she said.
The final price adjustments will be announced by oil companies on Monday, which will take effect the next day.
Last Tuesday, oil firms hiked diesel and kerosene prices by P0.30 per liter and by P0.65 per liter, respectively, while no movement was implemented on gasoline prices.
The adjustments resulted in a year-to-date net increase of P6 per liter for diesel, P1.74 per liter for kerosene and P12.30 per liter for gasoline, data from the DOE showed.
Meanwhile, cooking gas prices will stay the same as retailers will implement no changes in LPG prices this December after four consecutive months of increases.
Among the retailers that have announced that that there will be no movement in their LPG prices this month are Petron and Solane.
Last month, both Petron and Solane raised LPG prices by P0.45 per kilogram.
Prices of 11-kilogram household LPG ranged from P875 to P1,060 based on the DOE’s price monitoring in Metro Manila from Nov. 3 to 9.
