Oil prices adjusted

MANILA, Philippines - Petron Corp., Chevron Philippines, and Eastern Petroleum announced a rollback on prices of gasoline but an increase in diesel and kerosene rates effective 6 a.m. today.

Petron yesterday said it would implement a rollback of 45 centavos per liter on all gasoline products.

On the other hand, the oil firms would raise the prices of diesel by 25 centavos and kerosene by 30 centavos.

“This reflects movements in the international oil market,” Petron said.

As of press time, other oil firms have yet to make similar announcements.

Last week, oil companies also announced a 35 centavos per liter hike for premium gasoline and a P3 per kilogram rollback for kerosene.

Since the start of the year, oil companies increased prices for four straight weeks, followed by rollbacks for five consecutive weeks.

Energy officials have said that it was difficult to say how long the downtrend would continue.

A party-list group has already asked the Department of Energy and the Department of Justice to look into possible pricing collaboration among the country’s oil players.

1-UTAK chairman Vigor Mendoza urged the energy and justice departments’ Task Force on Oil Prices to look into possible pricing collaboration, saying that oil firms seem to change prices minimally during episodes of world price decreases.