Fuel prices are seen going down for the second straight week by Tuesday, with the Department of Energy forecasting a rollback of under one peso for all products.
In an interview with Super Radyo dzBB, DOE Oil Industry Management Bureau Director Rino Abad indicated the rollback, which sources said would be about P0.60 to P0.95 per liter of diesel and P0.30 to P0.60 per liter of gasoline.
GMA News Online said its sources cited oil trading in the past four days for their forecast. Oil companies usually announce fuel price adjustments every Monday, to be implemented on the following day.
On October 25, local firms cut gasoline prices by P0.35, diesel by P1.10, and P0.45 for kerosene. This brought the year-to-date total adjustments to a net increase of P16.10 per liter for gasoline, P37.40 per liter for diesel, and P29.20 per liter for kerosene.
Data from the DOE’s price monitoring from October 25 to 27, showed the price per liter of gasoline ranging from P62.05 to P72.70 per liter in Quezon City, Metro Manila’s largest city.
Diesel prices ranged from P76.20 to P80.89 per liter in Makati City, the country’s top financial hub, while in the capital Manila, kerosene prices ranged from P79.71 to P88.80 per liter.
Meanwhile, Senator Win Gatchalian wants to establish a national policy and framework for petroleum exploration and development in the country.
He said this should be done by amending the charter of the government-owned and controlled Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) to reduce the country’s dependence on oil imports.
In filing Senate Bill No. 380, Gatchalian is adamant the PNOC should refocus its mandate exclusively on oil and gas exploration and development.
“PNOC must be empowered to invest in petroleum operation projects, both here and abroad, and should be allowed to retain 50% of its net earnings for local petroleum exploration and development,” he added.
Due to the nature of petroleum exploration and development as a capital-intensive industry and its importance in achieving energy security and self-sufficiency, Gatchalian said that the government should jumpstart the development of the sector like what other countries have done.
However, he noted that in the case of PNOC, which was created almost 50 years ago in 1973, the company has engaged in various activities far from its original mandate, which is to provide an adequate and stable supply of petroleum products to meet the domestic requirement and to promote the exploration and development of local petroleum sources.
Instead, the company has organized a total of 8 subsidiaries whose involvement ranges from developing geothermal resources to promoting energy efficiency programs.
Gatchalian said there is a need to merge all subsidiaries and PNOC companies into just one company for a more coherent and targeted direction and improved operational efficiency.
The mother company is trying to undertake downstream oil projects while the Philippine National Oil Company Exploration Corporation (PNOC-EC) has not produced a single drop of oil and gas apart from the Malampaya gas field.
The Philippine National Oil Company Renewables Corporation (PNOC-RC), meanwhile, has been suffering from financial losses for almost 10 years.
“All of these are with the end goal of achieving energy security and self-sufficiency,” the senator stated.