MANILA, Philippines—As world oil prices continue to go down, bulk liquefied petroleum gas supplier Liquigaz Philippines Corp. and the LPG Marketers Association announced cutting prices of their products at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.

Liquigaz will bring prices down by P2 a kilogram, while LPGMA members will slash prices of cooking gas by P1 a kg and of autoLPG by P1 a liter.

Both cited the huge drop in the international contract price of LPG in December as the reason for the price cut.

LPGMA president Arnel Ty said the LPG contract price plunged to $341 per metric ton (MT) this month from $490 per MT in November.

Major oil firms Petron Corp., Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. and Total (Philippines) Corp. had yet to announce their own LPG price reduction as of press time.

Last month alone, LPGMA slashed prices by P12 per kg: by P3 on November 1; P1 on November 4, 7 and 11; P4 on November 14 and P2 on November 21.

An 11-kg LPG cylinder now costs between P429.40 and P495.40.

Price cuts are also being implemented by oil companies.

Eastern Petroleum Corp. at noon yesterday reduced prices of gasoline by P2 a liter and diesel by P1 a liter

This effectively matched the price reductions of P5 a liter for gasoline and P2 a liter for diesel implemented by competitors Petron, Shell, Total, Chevron Philippines Inc., PTT Philippines Corp., Flying V and Seaoil Philippines Inc. over the weekend.

The weekend price cuts brought pump prices in Metro Manila of unleaded gasoline to between P29.57 and P36.15 a liter, diesel to between P32.47 and P41.50 a liter, and kerosene to between P39.15 and P45.15 a liter.

Data from the Department of Energy show that prices of the regional benchmark Dubai crude averaged $50 a barrel as of November 26, shedding $17 a barrel from the October average of $67 a barrel.

The price of unleaded gasoline, based on the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) benchmark for refined petroleum products, dropped to an average of $49 a barrel in the first 26 days of November from $80 a barrel in October.

MOPS-based diesel registered an average price of $74 a barrel in the November 1-26 period, from the October average of $89 a barrel.