Fuel prices to go down this week

MANILA, Philippines — Local oil companies are expected to further reduce pump prices after US crude prices plunged further and started trading in the negative territory last week.

Unioil Philippines said it expects fuel prices to go down this week.

“Diesel should go down by P1.60 to P1.70 per liter. Gasoline should go down by P0.20 to P0.30 per liter,” Unioil said in a statement released yesterday.

At the start of the past trading week, US oil prices were trading in negative territory for the first time ever as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continued to induce a supply glut globally.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, also slumped but not as much as US oil due to the availability of storage, Reuters reported.

Global prices were able to rebound at the close of the week, but still ended the week in the red – their eighth weekly loss in the past nine weeks of erratic trading since the pandemic dried up global demand for fuel.

Last week, oil companies reduced gasoline prices by P0.55 per liter, diesel prices by P0.60 per liter and kerosene prices by P1.15 per liter.

This brought year-to-date adjustments to stand at a net decrease of P15.07 per liter for gasoline, P15.09 per liter for diesel and P19.75 per liter for kerosene.