MANILA, Philippines—The oil firms on Friday announced they were to cut the prices of gasoline, diesel and kerosene by P2 a liter -- likely the last fuel price rollback for the year.

Petron Corp., Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Chevron Philippines Inc., Eastern Petroleum Corp., Flying V and PTT Philippines Corp. were to implement the price reduction one stroke after midnight Friday or at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

Seaoil Philippines Inc. was to slash only the price of diesel by P2 a liter. It had already reduced the prices of its gasoline products last week by P3 a liter, when its competitors did so by just P1 a liter.

The oil companies all cited declining international prices as the reason for the pump price reduction.

According to data from the Department of Energy, the regional benchmark Dubai crude dropped to a December 1-18 average of $42 a barrel from $50 a barrel last month.

The price of unleaded gasoline based on the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) benchmark for refined petroleum products also declined to $41 a barrel as of December 18, from the $48-a-barrel average last month.

MOPS-based diesel also fell to an average of $64 a barrel in the first 18 days of December, from last month’s average of $74 a barrel.

Eastern Petroleum chair and chief executive Fernando Martinez stressed that the fuel price rollback had nothing to do with the transport caravan that the Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (Piston) spearheaded on Friday.

“It’s really because of declining prices. When one of the players announced an adjustment, we had to follow. It’s a marketing decision,” he said in an interview.

In a statement, Petron Corp. said this price reduction had been in the works for several days now.

“Contrary to some preliminary reports, our price adjustment scheduled for midnight has nothing to do with clamors from certain groups. We have been mulling a rollback for the past few days, and this is purely a marketing decision,” the company said.

Shell country chair Edgar Chua said the same thing, adding that consumers could still expect more rollbacks by next month.

“How can they say that (this has something to do with the caravan)? They’re asking for a P10 rollback, but we’re only doing P2. The rollback is because of the appeal of Secretary (Angelo Reyes) for Christmas,” he said in a telephone interview.

“This is already the full reduction for the rest of the year. A portion of that is an advance (reflection of January prices). In January, people can still expect further reductions. But the P10 reduction that Piston is asking for is not possible. We just want to make it clear that this reduction is not because of their caravan,” he added.

Piston secretary general George San Mateo had earlier said the December 19 caravan would just be a taste of the massive transport strike that his group and many others will stage if the oil companies refused to bring fuel prices down.

The group is demanding that oil companies reduce diesel prices to just P26 a liter.

With this new price reduction, the price of premium unleaded gasoline will range from P31.46 to P37.60 a liter, diesel from P29 to P33.48 a liter, kerosene from P37.50 to P46.15 a liter, and f autoLPG from P18 to P21.80 a liter.

Since July 31, gasoline prices have gone down 18 times for a total of P27.50 a liter, while diesel prices have dropped 16 times for a total of P24.50 a liter.