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AMID the
volatility in world oil prices seen in the past few
days, the Department of Energy remains optimistic that
world oil prices will further soften next month, Energy
Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla told reporters Saturday.
“World
oil prices remain to be very volatile, while we are very
happy that oil companies have reflected a price cut over
the weekend despite the fact that prices have sort of
been high during the past few days,” Lotilla said.
The
energy chief added that no one could say if oil prices
would continue to soften.
“Though
some people have been saying that a downtrend in world
oil prices could be expected, no one is absolutely sure
of how prices will fare given the complications on
geopolitics all throughout the world,” Lotilla said.
Over the
weekend, oil companies have rolled back the price of
petroleum products by another 50 centavos a liter to
partially reflect the downtrend in world oil prices.
Chevron
Philippines Inc., Petron Corp., Pilipinas Shell
Petroleum Corp., Seaoil Philippines Corp., and Unioil
Petroleum Philippines Corp. led the rollback on Friday
noon, followed by Total (Philippines)
Corp. on Friday night.
The
latest oil-price rollback brings the total amount of
price cut to P1.50 a liter.
According to DOE monitoring,
Dubai crude has gone down by about $7.06 per barrel to
$51.62 a barrel this month from an average price of
$58.68 per barrel in December.
DOE
added that Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS)-based diesel
price has gone down by about $4.00 per barrel to $68.20
a barrel this month from an average price of $72.20 per
barrel in December.
The
energy department noted that the price of MOPS-based
unleaded gasoline has also dropped by about $6.72 per
barrel to $61.44 a barrel this month from an average
price of $68.16 per barrel in December.
Lotilla
also reminded direct importers of gasoline and diesel to
continue to take the lead in reflecting lower
international prices in local pump prices as prices of
directly imported oil products have softened faster than
the imported crude oil.
Direct
imports account for approximately 50 percent of the
finished products sold in the country, while the
remaining 50 percent is refined locally by Petron and
Shell from imported crude.
Lotilla
also said he expects a reduction in the international
contract price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by next
month.
“While
the government remains committed to monitoring the
situation, let’s all hope that further reductions be
made in the price of petroleum products and a
substantial rollback will also be made in the price of
LPG by next month,” Lotilla said. |
