Motorists using diesel on their vehicles will have greater leverage at the gas pumps this week as this commodity will be on rollback by P1.30 per liter; while gasoline prices will have a leaner reduction of P0.70 per liter, as advised by the oil companies.

For kerosene, which is another commodity covered in weekly cost movements, its price will be trimmed by heftier P1.80 per liter, according to the industry players.

As of this writing, the oil firms that already sent notices on their price cuts had been Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation, Cleanfuel, Seaoil, PetroGazz and Chevron effective Tuesday (February 28); while their rival-companies are all expected to follow the new round of cost downtrends.

Apart from lower prices at the gas pumps, Filipino consumers are also looking forward to drop in budget that they will cough up in purchasing their cooking fuel, as the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is also anticipated to go down starting March 1.

Unlike fuel commodities at the gas pumps of which prices have been changing weekly as anchored on the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) indices, LPG prices are typically stable for a month as benchmarked on the international contract prices of Saudi Aramco, the reference pricing for Asian markets.

Last week’s softening of global oil prices had been mainly traced to the inventory buildup of major energy markets; as well as the higher inflation data in the United States that was seen triggering new round of interest rate hikes – and that in turn could ignite possible downtrend in demand.

Nevertheless, such development immediately had a counterweight with prospects that China’s demand uptick may already be coming in the weeks and months ahead; hence, that could exert pressure on available supply in markets.

On account of that market prediction, futures contract for international benchmark Brent crude has been escalating anew since Friday (February 24) trading – and it was already hovering at $82 per barrel as of Monday.

Beyond monitoring China’s market dynamics, industry watchers also tipped off on talks on another round of production cut being planned by Russia as added factor that may drive up prices in forward trading days.

As noted by experts, Russia has been pursuing its ‘retaliatory act’ on the price capping sanctions enforced by the European Union-member countries because of the former’s long-drawn-out war with Ukraine. ###

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by MYRNA M. VELASCO

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