The country’s oil firms rolled back the price of diesel by P0.30 per liter, kerosene by P0.20 per liter, and gasoline by P0.10 per liter effective 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.
The same companies, however, raised the price of cooking gas or liquefied petroleum gas by as much as P1.25 per kilo, and automotive LPG by P0.70 per liter owing to the higher contract price of LPG for the month of April.
Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Philippines, Phoenix Petroleum Philippines, PTT Philippines, and Eastern Petroleum Philippines announced the price adjustments, while other oil companies are expected to follow suit.
“After seven weeks of price hikes, Eastern Petroleum will slash the price of diesel by P0.30 per liter and unleaded and premium gasoline by P0.10 per liter at 12:01 AM, Tuesday (April 2, 2019),” the oil firm said.
Unioil Philippines forecasted a price rollback of P0.30 to P0.40 per liter for diesel and P0.05 to P0.10 per liter for diesel.
The rollback ends seven successive rounds of weekly oil price increase felt by consumers.
Price adjustments since the start of the year led to a net increase of P6.55 per liter for gasoline, P4.45 per liter for diesel and P3.35 per liter for kerosene.
On March 26, the country’s oil firms implemented a price increase of P0.65 per liter for gasoline and P0.10 per liter for kerosene and diesel.
Monitoring by the Department of Energy showed that oil prices remain supported by efforts by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-affiliated allies like Russia to trim output, as well as plummeting Venezuelan output.
However, the increase in US crude inventories, for the week ending March 22, by 2.8 million barrels negated the increase in oil prices.
“Worries about oil demand have also limited oil price rally as manufacturing data from Asia, Europe, and the United States pointed to an economic slowdown,” DOE said.