BW: Oil companies give in, announce fresh rollback
AFTER INITIALLY refusing demands, oil firms yesterday announced fresh fuel price rollbacks which industry players said were due more to market forces rather than crude movements.
Seaoil Philippines, Inc. was the first to implement the move, taking P1 per liter off gasoline, diesel and kerosene prices, and 75 centavos per liter for its gasoline-ethanol blend at 10:00 p.m. yesterday.
Th Big Three — Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. Petron Corp., Chevron Philippines, Inc., plus independent players Eastern Petroleum Corp. and Flying V, cut prices at 12:01 a.m. today.
Flying V president Ramon F. Villavicencio said there was no economic justification for the rollback but added market forces were at play.
Oil company executives claimed on Monday that there was no basis for a price adjustment — a run of rollbacks was halted during the weekend — even as consumer and transport groups argued that there was room for more.
World oil prices had reversed a downtrend on financial market news but are again falling as global economic woes worsen.
Dubai crude as of yesterday was at $82 per barrel, far from last month’s average of $95 per barrel. Imported diesel was at $104 per barrel, much lower than last month’s average of $121 while imported gasoline also plunged to $96 per barrel from last month’s $107.
Current pump prices with the rollback is P47-51 per liter for gasoline and P47-50 per liter for diesel. — AKKA
