By Ted P. Torres (The Philippine Star) - MANILA, Philippines - New oil players Eastern Petroleum Corp. and Seaoil Petroleum Corp. were scheduled to roll back pump prices of gasoline by P1 per liter, and diesel and kerosene products by P0.75 per liter starting last midnight.
“The reduction in oil prices reflects the big drop in international price of oil in the world market aided by the strengthening of the peso against the US dollar,” said Fernando Martinez, president of Eastern Petroleum.
Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Petron Corp. and Chevron Petroleum are also reducing pump prices of their diesel by P0.50 per liter, kerosene by P0.75 per liter, and gasoline by P1 per liter.
Downstream oil players are also expected to follow suit.
Phoenix Petroleum Philippines, meanwhile, will reduce the price of diesel and kerosene products by P0.75 per liter and gasoline products by P1 per liter.
Last Aug. 2, Shell and Seaoil both reduced the pump prices of diesel by P0.50 per liter, and kerosene by P0.25 per liter.
But at the same time, Shell increased the price of unleaded gasoline by P0.20 per liter while prices of regular gasoline remained unchanged.
Global oil prices have sunk to below $84 per barrel as a reaction to the credit downgrade by Standard & Poor’s of the United States economy.
According to The Associated Press, investors were concerned that the first-ever US debt rating downgrade will batter the already weakening consumer confidence and hurt economic growth.
It said that benchmark oil for September delivery was down $3.27 to $83.61 a barrel while crude rose by just $0.25 to settle at $86.88 last Friday.
