CONSIDERING the weakening of the peso against the dollar, another rollback in the price of petroleum products is deemed minimal compared with the previous price cuts oil companies have implemented in the past few weeks.

Based on the law of conservatism, Fernando Martinez, chairman and chief executive of Eastern Petroleum Corp. (EPC), said that a P0.50-per-liter rollback would be a “brave” move this weekend.

“We are not discounting another rollback in the price of petroleum products, but the problem is that the peso continues to depreciate,” said the EPC official.

Martinez said he deems a P0.50- per-liter price cut as the most prudent price for a rollback.

Martinez pointed out that the price of Dubai crude has increased by P1.50 per barrel and the price of diesel at the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) has also increased by $0.80 per barrel.

“We’re cautious about rolling back the price of petroleum products. There will still be rollbacks, and there is no denying such a fact,” said Martinez, asking, however, if they would be as aggressive as before. He noted that a one-time P3 to P4 per liter rollback is not possible, since the inventories of the products at the stations’ pumps are still based on July pricing.

Last week oil companies rolled back the price of gasoline for the third time, bringing the total price cut to P3.50 per liter, and P1.50 per liter for diesel.

Oil executives attributed the price cut to the continuous drop in world oil prices.

According to the Department of Energy (DOE) monitoring, oil benchmark Dubai crude averaged $114.03 per barrel in August from $131.27 a barrel in July.

The DOE also noted that MOPS-based gasoline averaged $116.24 a barrel in August from $135.27 a barrel in July, while MOPS-based diesel averaged $137.31 per barrel in August from $168.01 per barrel in July.

The DOE added that the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) has also dropped to $881 per metric ton in August from $936.50 per metric ton in July.

As of August 8, the DOE reported that the per-liter prices of unleaded gasoline range from P56.70/liter to P58.15/liter; diesel at P55.30/liter to P58/liter; kerosene at P58.80/liter to P60.76/liter and LPG ranging from P619 per 11-kilo cylinder to P671.50.

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CONSIDERING the weakening of the peso against the dollar, another rollback in the price of petroleum products is deemed minimal compared with the previous price cuts oil companies have implemented in the past few weeks.

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