Five oil firms to roll back prices by P1/liter on Thursday

With the continued drop in world oil prices, five oil companies announced a price rollback for their petroleum products on Wednesday.

The price reductions will take place Thursday.

The five oil firms - Eastern Petroleum, Petron Corporation, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation, Total Philippines Corp., and PTT Philippines - said they will reduced the price of their gasoline, kerosene and diesel by P1 per liter.

Petron, announced it will also roll back oil prices for its liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) rates by P2 per kilogram.

Petron, Eastern Petroleum and Shell said the price rollback will take effect 12:01 am of Nov. 20 while PTT and Total said it will impose the rollback 6 a.m. of Thursday.

Peso affects rollback

Fernando Martinez, president of Eastern Petroleum and head of the Independent Philippine petroleum Companies Association (IPPCA) said the decline in the prices of crude in the international market is seen to reflect in "an across the board P1 per liter rollback".

"We have to give this rollback," Martinez said in a telephone interview adding that the P1 price cut this weekend will bring to P8 the total rollback implmented by the oil firms for this week.

"If no one will roll back (their prices), I will definitely implement the rollback," Martinez added.

He also noted that had it not been for the peso depreciation, the rollback could have even be higher at P5 per liter.

Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said the continued drop in the world oil prices should also result in the decline in the domestic prices and this should also cover until next month.

Monitoring conducted by the Department of Energy indicated that as of Nov. 17, 2008, the average Dubai crude, dropped to US$54 per barrel from October average of US$ 67.

Unleaded gasoline based on Mean of Platts Singapore, price gauge of oil importers, also went down to US$ 54 per barrel as against the US$ 80 per barrel average price last month.

MOPS for diesel prices similarly dropped to US$ 78 per barrel in Nov. 17 from US$ 89 last month.

Not enough

While the recent pump price rollbacks are welcomed, “these are still not enough," said Socioeconomic Planning secretary Ralph G. Recto said, echoing a similar call by the Department of Energy (DOE).

“In our estimate at National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), the pump prices of gasoline should now be at P35.86 per liter and diesel at P31.77 per liter based on Dubai crude oil prices of $56.00/bbl," Recto, who is also NEDA's director general, said.

At $67/bbl of Dubai crude using the same exchange rate, Recto said gasoline should be about P40.86 per liter while diesel at about P35.22 per liter. As of November 8, the DOE monitored the average retail price of gasoline at P43.96 per liter while diesel stood at P40.94 per liter at an exchange rate of P48.54 to the US dollar.

“It is important to be mindful of the actions of the oil companies because every peso rollback counts for the ordinary Filipino consumer as this should translate into lower prices of transportation, food, and other commodities," the NEDA chief said.- with Aie Balagtas See, GMANews.TV