The country’s oil firms cut pump prices by as much as P1.30 per liter effective 6 a.m. today (Tuesday) to reflect the movement of oil prices in the world market as the government said it will begin distributing the P1 billion fuel subsidy for jeepney drivers this week.
Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board chairman Martin Delgra III said the subsidy release will likely begin on Wednesday.
According to LTFRB Technical Division Chief Joel Bolano, the agency has already submitted a list of beneficiaries to Landbank, including jeepney drivers who were already issued fuel subsidy cards when they received assistance in 2018 and 2019.
Over 136,200 jeepney franchise holders are targeted to receive the fuel subsidy, which means each would receive about P7,300.
Meanwhile, this week’s price movement is the third consecutive week of rollback for gasoline and kerosene.
“Petron will implement the following price rollbacks effective 6 a.m. on Nov 23: P0.85 per liter for gasoline; P1.20 per liter for diesel and P1.30 per liter for kerosene. These reflect movements in the international oil market,” Petron Corp. said in its advisory.
Aside from Petron, Seaoil Philippines, PetroGazz, Cleanfuel, Flying V, Chevron Philippines, and Total Philippines also cut pump prices.
On November 16, the oil companies implemented a price rollback in domestic oil products.
Gasoline decreased by P0.90 per liter and kerosene by P0.10 per liter. No movement was effected on the price of diesel.
These resulted in the year-to-date adjustments to stand at a total net increase of P20.05 per liter for gasoline, P15.09 per liter for kerosene while that of diesel remains at P17.50 per liter.
According to the latest monitoring of the Department of Energy, crude prices rebounded on a positive demand outlook with Saudi Aramco raising the Official Selling Prices (OSPs) of its crudes for Asia, Mediterranean, Europe and US even as supply remains slightly tight.
The opening of air travel in the US and strong US job report also boosted world oil prices.
Meanwhile, DOE said demand is expected to remain weak in Asia and pick up gradually as the economy and travel open more.