New Year oil price rollback
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2018 16:01:57 +0000
Local oil prices are anticipated to go down at the start of the New Year by P1.50 to P2 per liter.
Based on figures set out by the oil companies, gasoline prices will likely be cut by P1.50 per liter while diesel will be rolled back by close to P2 per liter.
The price cuts are anticipated from this weekend to New Year’s Day.
The expected price reductions keep with the precipitously sliding oil commodity prices in the world market.
The oil firms indicated that the final price cuts would still change depending on the outcome of trading in regional oil markets yesterday.
Philippine pump prices are anchored on the swings of both Dubai crude which is the benchmark for refiners and the Mean of Platts Singapore for the finished product of importer-players of the industry.
Dubai crude has softened to $57 per barrel in this trading week while the West Texas Intermediate crude reference of the US market had been at $45 per barrel.
The highly buoyed inventory of the United States has been pushing prices anew to basement levels – similar to what had happened in 2014 to 2015.
The recent move of the traditional oil producers at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its Russian ally was not even enough to provide a counterbalance to the output of their North American counterparts.
Just last week, the US reported a surprising rise in its oil inventory, reaching 6.9 million barrels vis-à-vis previous expectations of about 2.9 million barrels.
Give such recent international developments, rollbacks in pump prices are expected for most part of next year, especially within the first quarter. (Myrna M. Velasco)