Gasoline prices cut by P1.25

MANILA, Philippines - As world crude prices plunged, oil companies Chevron, Seaoil and Unioil Petroleum Phils. announced yesterday that they would roll back their pump prices by P1.25 per liter for gasoline and P1 per liter for diesel effective today.

The oil firms said they would also reduce kerosene price by 75 centavos.

Glenn Yu, Seaoil president, said the Department of Energy (DOE) expected the price cut as prices of crude and finished products declined in the world market last week.

Oil companies have been adjusting their prices almost on a weekly basis.

The price reduction was higher than the DOE’s earlier assumption of between 60 centavos and P1 per liter rollback on both diesel and gasoline products.

At press time, other oil firms have yet to follow the move of the three oil companies.

For four straight weeks, crude stocks have been going down in the US, signifying a recovery in demand.

Crude prices gained earlier after the US Energy Information Agency raised its forecast for 2009 world oil demand outlook by 10,000 barrels per day from its May report — the first hike since September 2008.

As of June 25, the price of Dubai crude, the benchmark of oil refiners, stood at $69 per barrel, higher than $58 per barrel in May.

The price of gasoline and diesel at the Mean of Platts Singapore, the price gauge of oil importers, reached $77 per barrel compared to May’s $68 per barrel.

Fernando Martinez, chairman of Independent Philippine Petroleum Companies Association, noted that there was a decline in global oil prices that was not reflected in the Asian market.

He said if global oil prices would start to go down, chances are local pump prices would stabilize.

He gave assurance that current pump prices are at “reasonable levels.”

“To me, oil prices have already reached a high in the past eight months, and to me that’s too much. The $70 per barrel last week appeared to be a reasonable price, considering the status of the world economy. Not everybody has recovered in the US. There is still massive a number of people who have yet to recover. If it went up further, I think there will be a price resistance in world prices,” he said.