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THE
spike in oil prices in the world market should not be
used by local oil firms to raise their prices, Energy
Secretary Angelo Reyes said on Tuesday. His remarks were
followed by Eastern Petroleum Corp. chairman Fernando
Martinez’s assurance that local oil prices would not be
affected by the sudden increase.
Martinez
said, “Even if oil prices at the New York Mercantile
Exchange inched by 17 percent and the Dubai crude
increased by $8 per barrel in the last four trading
days, it will have no impact on local oil prices.”
Martinez
said, however, the price spike may stop the weekly
rollbacks. He added that additional price adjustment may
be made “regardless if upwards or downwards depending on
the movement of oil prices at the Mean of Platts
Singapore [MOPS] and market reaction.”
Martinez
said a more frequent adjustment will enable Eastern to
reflect immediately any savings to its customers while,
at the same time, reflect smaller increases in case of
price upswings.
The
Department of Energy reported that oil benchmark Dubai
crude averaged $96.66 per barrel in September from
$112.86 a barrel in August, and noted that MOPS-based
gasoline averaged $107 per barrel in September from
$115.49 per barrel; while MOPS-based diesel was at $121
per barrel in September from $135.26 per barrel in
August.
The
department added that the price of liquefied petroleum
gas has also dropped to $828 per metric ton in September
from $881 per metric ton in August. |
