Diesel, gasoline prices expected to go down next week

MANILA, Philippines — The series of increases in the price of gasoline could come to an end next week, while diesel prices could see another round of reduction.

“We expect, based on our estimates, that there will be a rollback for diesel and gasoline,” Department of Energy (DOE) Oil Industry Management Bureau director Rino Abad said in an interview with dzBB yesterday.

Abad said indications point to a decrease of more than P1 per liter in gasoline prices and around P0.50 per liter in diesel prices based on the first four trading days of the week.

For kerosene, however, Abad said price adjustments can go both ways, either a rollback or an increase.

Abad said the market is correcting as there is doubt on the earlier announced production cut of the OPEC+ by 1.16 million barrels per day.

“We are returning to a balance in demand and supply,” the DOE official said.

“There is a recovery from the speculative increase the past two weeks because it is really unclear if the OPEC+ can deliver on the production cut,” he said.

An oil industry source, meanwhile, estimates a P0.50 to P0.60 per liter decrease in diesel prices next week and a decline of P1.40 to P1.50 per liter for gasoline.

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

The forecasted rollbacks, if implemented, will end three consecutive weeks of price hikes for gasoline and will extend the reduction in diesel prices to two weeks.

Oil companies last Tuesday raised gasoline and kerosene prices by P0.30 per liter and P0.10 per liter, respectively, while cutting diesel prices by P0.40 per liter.

These adjustments resulted to a year-to-date net decrease for diesel at P2.35 per liter and kerosene at P3.35 per liter, based on DOE data.

Gasoline, on the other hand, has a net increase of P8.95 per liter year-to-date.