The country’s oil firms cut gasoline prices for the second consecutive week by P0.80 to P0.90 per liter starting Tuesday to reflect the movement of world oil prices.
The oil firms, however, did not reduce diesel and kerosene prices.
Energy Department director Melita Obillo said the latest oil price rollback was due to continuing oversupply of petroleum products in the world market.
Among the companies that issued the price advisories are Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Petron Corp. Phoenix Petroleum Philippines, PTT Philippines, Seaoil Philippines, Eastern Petroleum and Flying V. Last July 5, the oil firms also cut gasoline prices by P0.60 per liter and kerosene by P0.20 per liter which reflected the impact of Britain’s exit from the European Union.
The Energy Department earlier said there is a continuing threat of supply security since 99.9 percent of the total oil requirement of the country is imported.
The department said that aside from weather, political factors from supply sources will affect security of supply.
It said it is important to encourage industry players to increase investments in order to ensure supply security, improve market competition and consequently, reasonable prices.
The department said it will continue to seek investments in the industry, especially foreign investors to explore investing in oil refinery.
Investments in the Philippine downstream oil industry sector reached P49 billion in 2015 from P38 billion in 2010 while the number of industry players increased to 249 last year from 181 in 2010.
Total industry storage capacity has also significantly improved with depots now at 163 from 144 in 2010.
Refining capacity also saw an increasing to 285 million barrels per day from 278 million barrels per day in 2010.
The number of retail outlets of petroleum products also jumped to 6,264 in 2015 from 4,114 in 2010.
Sales of refined petroleum products also increased last year to 124.5 million barrels from 111.8 million barrels in 2010.