OIL prices went down for the fifth consecutive week by as much as P0.90 per liter to reflect the movement of oil prices in the world market.
The oil firms cut diesel prices by P0.90 per liter, gasoline by P0.75 per liter and kerosene by P0.90 per liter effective 6 a.m. Tuesday.
Phoenix Petroleum Philippines said oil prices declined due to “lower [Mean of Platts Singapore] due to lower crude prices because of surplus supply.”
Among the oil firms that issued price cut advisories were PTT Philippines, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Flying V and Eastern Petroleum although other oil firms are expected to follow suit.
Last week, the oil firms also cut prices by P0.35 per liter for diesel, P0.30 per liter for kerosene and P0.10 per liter for gasoline.
On Monday, the oil firms also cut the price of cooking gas by P0.70 per kilogram and auto LPG by P0.40 per liter.
Oil prices have been declining due to weak demand from US and China despite the abundant supply.
The World Bank last week slightly raised its forecast for crude prices to $43 per barrel in 2016 from $41 per barrel “due to supply outages and robust demand in the second quarter.”
The World Bank said oil prices jumped 37 percent in the second quarter due to disruptions to supply, particularly wildfires in Canada and sabotage of oil infrastructure in Nigeria.
“We expect slightly higher oil prices for the second half of 2016 as oil market oversupply diminishes,” said John Baffes, senior economist and lead author of the Commodities Markets Outlook. “However, inventories remain very large and will take some time to be drawn down.”