Oil price rollback seen; Meralco rates may go up

MANILA, Philippines — Pump prices could see a rollback next week, potentially ending three straight weeks of price hikes for gasoline.

“Based on the four-day trading, we will be expecting another round of rollback on prices of petroleum products,” Department of Energy (DOE) Oil Industry Management Bureau assistant director Rodela Romero said.

Romero said the estimated amount of adjustments could be a possible decrease of P0.40 to P0.60 per liter for gasoline, P1 to P1.30 per liter for diesel and P0.80 to P1.05 per liter for kerosene.

An oil industry source, on the other hand, estimated potential price reductions ranging from P1.20 to P1.30 per liter for diesel and a possible decline of between P0.60 and P0.70 per liter for gasoline.

Cleanfuel, for its part, said running trend points to rollbacks of P1 per liter for gasoline and P1.30 per liter for diesel for next week.

“This rollback adjustment is attributed to the contained situation of the Israel-Hamas war, additional crude production outputs from OPEC and US and slowing fuel demand growth due to weakening global economic growth,” Romero said.

The DOE official, however, said the price estimates may still change as a result of Friday’s trading.

Should the forecasted downward adjustments push through, it will end three successive weeks of price increases for gasoline and extend the price reductions for diesel and kerosene to a second consecutive week.

Last Tuesday, oil firms cut prices of diesel by P1.25 per liter and kerosene by P1.20 per liter, while gasoline prices were raised by P0.45 per liter.

The price adjustments resulted in a year-to-date net increase of P14.20 per liter for gasoline, P10.45 per liter for diesel and P5.04 per liter for kerosene, data from the DOE showed.

Meralco rates

Rates of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) could go up anew this month due to upward pressure on the generation charge, which is the largest component of the electric bill.

“While we have yet to receive the final billings from our suppliers, initial indication shows that there is upward pressure on the generation charge this month,” Meralco vice president and head of corporate communications Joe Zaldarriaga said.

“This is