Another round of fuel price cuts seen next week  

MANILA, Philippines —  The streak of price rollbacks across all fuel products is expected to continue next week.

Cleanfuel said the running trend as of yesterday showed a possible reduction of P1.90 per liter in gasoline prices and a P2 per liter decrease for diesel.

Department of Energy (DOE)-Oil Industry Management Bureau director Rino Abad also said in an interview with dzBB yesterday that there is strong indication that there will be a
 rollback next week even just with four trading days completed so far.

Abad estimates a more or less P2 per liter rollback for gasoline and diesel prices and a more than P1 per liter decline for kerosene.

He said among the factors leading to the downward price adjustments are the rising COVID-19 cases in China as well as the prevailing impact of interest hikes.

“The rollback could have been bigger if the peso did not weaken,” he said.

However, Abad said results of the OPEC+’s upcoming Dec. 4 ministerial meeting could put an end to the series of price rollbacks in pump prices in the following weeks.

“This could possibly mess up and destroy the trend of downward movement in prices,” he said.

Price adjustments will be announced by oil companies on Monday, which will take effect the next day.

If the rollbacks push through as forecast, these will be the seventh consecutive week of decline in the prices of diesel and a third straight for gasoline.

Last Tuesday, diesel prices dropped by P3.95 per liter, gasoline by P0.85 per liter and kerosene by P2.65 per liter.

These resulted in a year-to-date net increase of P16.90 per liter for gasoline, P29.90 per liter for diesel and P25.20 per liter for kerosene, based on data from the DOE.