Consumers will likely experience lower pump prices next week by nearly P2 per liter for gasoline and nearly P6 per kilogram price cut for cooking gas or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
Rino Abad, director for the Oil Industry Management Bureau of the Department of Energy, attributed the price cuts to the surge cases driven by new Omicron variants in China and South Africa that could dampen global demand.
“That’s what we are seeing. It’s driven by the surge of new variants,” Abad said.
Sources said unleaded gasoline may go down by P1.12 per liter, diesel by P1.81 per liter, and kerosene by P1.88 per liter effective Tuesday.
On May 1, LPG prices are also expected to go down by P5.77 per kilo equivalent to around P63.47 per 11-kilo tank to reflect the lower contract price of LPG in the world market.
AutoLPG prices will likewise go down by about P3.23 per liter.
On April 26, the oil companies implemented an oil price hike in domestic oil products.
Gasoline increased by P3 per liter, diesel by P4.10 per liter, and kerosene by P3.50 per liter.
These resulted in the year-to-date adjustments to stand at a net increase of P18.45 per liter for gasoline, P31.45 per liter for diesel, and P25.05 per liter for kerosene.
Domestic pump prices have been on an uptrend in 13 out of the past 16 weeks.
World oil prices have remained volatile over the Russia-Ukraine crisis, tight global oil supply, and new COVID-19 variants that could impact public health thereby affecting demand.
Meanwhile, prices at the electricity spot market were slightly lower in April due to an increase in power supply levels, according to the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP).
IEMOP, operator of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) observed better supply conditions due to the resumption of operations by generators that were previously on outage.
The WESM acts as the trading floor of electricity where supply went up by 3.3 percent equivalent to 449 megawatts to 13,995 MW in April, which led to a drop in WESM prices to an average of P6.26 per kilowatt hour in April from P6.97 per kWh in March.
“Another contributor to the decrease in prices was the decline in demand – by around 146 MW or 1.38 percent to 10,454 MW,” IEMOP said, attributing this to the presence of two typhoons, Agaton and Basyang, which gave off heavy rains and relatively colder weather all over Luzon and Visayas.
IEMOP said April also covered a week-long religious break which temporarily halted the operations of many businesses and led to a demand decline.
The peak demand for the Luzon grid decreased to 11,492 MW in April from 11,617 MW the previous month. The recorded peak demand in Luzon this year was at 11,670 MW on March 23.
The peak demand of the Visayas grid increased to 2,156 MW on April 1.
As the elections come closer, IEMOP also assured enough power supply during the May 9 election day.
Even before and after elections, IEMOP officials said there is ample supply.
The average supply is placed at around 13,558 MW from May 8 to May 11 while the average demand is placed at 10,177 MW, representing an average margin of 3,381 MW.
However, IEMOP said that under its worst-case scenario simulation considering a 1,000 MW outage in Luzon, the last week of May will experience a thin supply margin given the lower supply of power.
The thin supply may also be experienced in August and September, it said.
