Fuel pump prices are expected to move anew next week on the heels of the past week’s price hikes.
Unioil Petroleum Philippines’ predicted that the price of diesel during the April 18-24 trading week might go down by P0.30 to P0.40 per liter.
Gasoline, on the other hand, may either retain its current rate or drop by a minimal 10 centavos per liter.
Oil companies usually announce price adjustments on a Monday, to be implemented the next day.
Last Tuesday, fuel firms implemented a per-liter increase of P2.60 for gasoline, P1.70 for diesel, and P1.90 for kerosene.
The latest price adjustments resulted in a year-to-date net decrease for diesel at P1.95 per liter and kerosene at P3.45 per liter.
Gasoline, on the other hand, has a net increase of P8.65 per liter.
Meanwhile, an industry source said oil consumers can expect a price rollback for diesel by as much as P0.55 per liter next week as it reflects the movement of prices in the world market.
The source told the Standard that based on the four-day trading and foreign exchange movement week-on-week, the pump price of diesel is estimated to go down by P0.45 to P0.55 per liter, while gasoline will have no movement or a P0.05 per liter increase.
The final computation will depend on Friday’s oil price trading, the source added.
The move followed reports from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries that there may be some risks to summer oil demand despite the production cut announced by OPEC and Saudi of 1.16 million barrels per day to boost prices.
On April 11, local oil companies implemented a per liter increase of P2.60 for gasoline, P1.70 for diesel and P1.90 for kerosene.
These resulted in a year-to-date net decrease for diesel at P1.95 per liter and kerosene at P3.45 per liter.
Gasoline on the other hand, has a net increase of P8.65 per liter.
In another development, Department of Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla on Friday met with the Liga ng Transportasyon at Operators sa Pilipinas to discuss concerns such as domestic oil prices, utilization of liquified natural gas for road public transport, transition to e-vehicles, and other programs and projects that the Department of Energy may extend to the public transport sector.
The DOE said the dialogue was a venue for the continuous coordination between the agency and LTOP on addressing concerns and keeping them abreast of government initiatives in the sector.