Consumers can expect a price reprieve from high oil prices as the Department of Energy expects a price rollback of as much as P1.15 per liter next week.
Department of Energy (DOE) director for the oil industry management bureau Rodela Romero said that based on the four-day trading, gasoline prices will likely rollback by P0.70 to P0.90 per liter and diesel and kerosene by P1 to P1.15 per liter
Romero said several factors influenced the softening of world oil prices.
“Firstly, crude falls on weak China inflation data pointing to soft consumer confidence and the potential stimulus measures from Beijing to boost demand,” she said.
“Secondly, apart from shipping delays and platform evacuations, Hurricane Beryl seems to have led to relatively little physical damage, allowing US to recover oil production, offsetting a larger than expected weekly draw in US crude inventories,” Romero said.
She said the movement of the dollar also contributed to lower oil prices though in the later part of the week, oil markets started to focus again on fundamentals and geopolitical issues.
Domestic pump prices have gone up for four consecutive weeks prior to the forecast rollback for a total of P4.80 per diesel and gasoline and P3.90 per liter for kerosene.
On July 9, the oil companies implemented an increase on the prices of gasoline, diesel and kerosene by P1.60, P0.65 and P0.60 per liter, respectively.
Year-to-date total adjustment of gasoline, diesel and kerosene stand at net increase of P10.85 per liter, P9.05 per liter and P2.35 per liter, respectively.
