Oil firms enforce 7th rollback; diesel cut by P2.20-P2.30/liter, gasoline by P1.10/liter

Updated November 26, 2018, 7:37 AM By Myrna Velasco

https://business.mb.com.ph/2018/11/25/oil-firms-enforce-7th-rollback-diesel-cut-by-p2-20-p2-30liter-gasoline-by-p1-10liter/

The oil companies enforced price cuts of P2.20 to P2.30 per liter for diesel products and P1.10 per liter for gasoline products in their series of announcements over the weekend.

Kerosene, which is another socially sensitive product, had price reduction of P2.10 per liter, according to the industry players.

As of press time, the oil firms that already announced rollbacks have been Phoenix Petroleum, Shell, Seaoil and PTT Philippines – with price reductions effective from November 24 (Saturday) to November 27 (Tuesday).

Phoenix Petroleum this time had lower price reduction for diesel at P2.20 per liter, but it was the first one to implement rollback at 12 noon on Saturday (November 24).

Seaoil implemented its price rollbacks at 6 a.m. on Sunday (November 25); while Shell and PTT will have their prices slashed by Tuesday (November 27) – and the rest of the industry players are anticipated to follow.

This is already the seventh batch in the string of price rollbacks that the oil companies have been implementing since last month – on account of crashing prices in the world market.

Following the market knock of US$80 to US$85 per barrel in September, global oil prices has been continually collapsing in the past weeks – chiefly due to beefed-up inventories in the United States.

Recent developments have somehow thwarted usual market speculations because prices were even on downtrend during the enforcement of sanctions on Iran on November 4.

Market watchers have been highly anticipating that prices will be on uptick by November, but it’s the reverse that happened – and this has also frustrated earlier forecasts of cost escalations heading to US$90-US$100 per barrel.

For markets depending largely on imports like the Philippines, the downtrend in prices had been a very positive development – especially so since heavy spending will preoccupy many Filipino families for the Christmas season.

It is worth watching market swings though if price cuts would still persist next week, given Saudi Arabia’s pronouncement that it will be cutting market exports to help winch up falling prices.