A horse-drawn cart passes a petroleum station in Manila Friday as consumers enjoy rollback of fuel prices. World oil traded below $50 on Friday, after touching lows unseen in more than three years on growing fears that a worldwide recession could ravage energy demand, analysts said. AFP/LUIS LIWANAG
MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE 3) For the second time this week, the big three oil firms in the Philippines are to slash the prices of gasoline, diesel and kerosene by P1 per liter starting one stroke after midnight Friday, after crude prices in the world market plunged below $49 per barrel.
Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Petron Corp. and Chevron were to implement the price cut at 12.01 a.m. Saturday other local firms were expected to follow suit.
Since prices peaked in July, the latest cuts are the 17th time for gasoline, 14th for diesel and 15th for kerosene.
Gasoline and diesel prices have since gone down by P20 to P21 per liter while those of kerosene slid by a total of P18 to P19.
The price cuts bring prevailing pump rates in Metro Manila of unleaded gasoline to a range of P36.07 to P41.51 a liter, diesel to between P34.97 and P38.17 a liter, and kerosene to between P41.80 and P47.49 a liter.
Available data from the DOE show that prices of the regional benchmark Dubai crude averaged $54 per barrel in Novemver 1-17 trading.
This shows a decrease of $13 per barrel from the October average of $67 and of $77.27 since Dubai prices peaked at an average of $131.27 in July.
Industry data showed that crude prices tumbled to lowest levels in about three years to below $49 a barrel.
DOE monitoring showed that in the November 1-17 period, the average Mean of Platts Singapore prices for unleaded gasoline settled also at $54 per barrel or $26 lower than the October average of $80.
Average MOPS rates for gasoline has sunk by $86.30 per barrel since this peaked at $140.30 in June.
Also, the average MOPS price for diesel in the same trading period was $78 per barrel or $11 lower than the October average of $89.
Average MOPS prices for diesel have gone down by $91.36 per barrel since this peaked at $169.36 in June.
For November, the international contract price of LPG was pegged at $490 per metric ton or $314 lower than $804 in October.
"World oil prices continued to decline as traders continued to worry about weaker demand for energy amid an increasingly deteriorating economic outlook," the DOE said. With a report from Abigail Kwok, INQUIRER.net
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