Consumers can expect a big-time price rollback of more than P2 per liter next week to reflect the movement of prices in the world oil market.
An oil industry source said that based on the first four days of trading this week and the foreign exchange movement, diesel will likely go down by P2.60 to P2.80 per liter and gasoline by P2.10 to P2.30 per liter.
“These movements are attributed to the cut in the Official Selling Price of Arab Light Crude Oil to Asia to compete with India’s and China’s eagerness to snap up cheap Russian Crude Oil, and the heightened concern about Chinese recovery with unexpected slowdown in manufacturing activity,” DOE director for Oil Industry Management Bureau Rodela Romero said.
Romero said oil prices also declined on reports of another possible US interest hike and a looming recession. Alena Mae S. Flores
The West Texas Intermediate fell below $70 per barrel this week amid concerns of economic slowdown from the US and China.
On May 2, the oil companies also implemented a price rollback of P1.50 for gasoline, P1.30 for diesel and P1.40 for kerosene.
These resulted in a year-to-date net decrease for diesel at P4.35 per liter and kerosene at P4.95 per liter. Gasoline, on the other hand, has a net increase of P6.05 per liter.
Meanwhile, Pryce Corp. is optimistic cooking gas or liquefied petroleum gas demand will increase this year.
The company believes that its current market share of 15 percent based on the third quarter 2022 report from the DOE will increase further in 2023, amid the LPG industry’s sluggish growth during the past 4 years.
Pryce posted a 27 percent growth in net income to P511.54 million in the first quarter from P402.77 million in the same period last year.
Consolidated revenues went up 10 percent from P4.72 billion to P5.18 billion due to the sale of LPG products, as they account for more than 90 percent of the consolidated revenues.
Sales volume of LPG (cooking gas) for the year increased by 38 percent while sales volume of industrial gases expanded by 44 percent.
Meanwhile, the average LPG contract price in the world market declined in the first quarter to $708.17 per metric ton from $ 802.17 per MT in the same period in 2022.