MANILA, Philippines?Heeding calls to cut prices by a substantial amount, oil firms slashed cooking gas prices by P66 per 11-kilogram cylinder.
Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Petron Corp. and Total (Philippines) Corp. all implemented the price reduction effective at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.
Petron also reduced the price of its autoLPG, or liquefied petroleum gas for transport use, by P3.76 a liter on Wednesday.
With this new price reduction, the price of an 11-kg LPG cylinder now ranges from P479 to P561 and of autoLPG from P23.90 to P28.20 a liter.
At a meeting with LPG suppliers last Friday, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said the price of LPG could still go down by P191 per 11-kg cylinder.
So far this month, LPG prices had fallen by P110 a cylinder.
Ahead of Petron, Eastern Petroleum Corp. and Seaoil Philippines Inc. cut their autoLPG prices by P2 a liter at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
?This should bring our pump prices to about P24 per liter, lower by about P18 per liter than gasoline, or a P720- to P1,080-advantage for autoLPG taxis and other (vehicles) consuming 40 to 60 liters daily,? Seaoil president Glenn Yu said.
Tuesday, the LPG Marketers Association brought prices down by P11 per cylinder, with another rollback likely to be implemented over the weekend, according to its president Arnel Ty.
Data from the Department of Energy show that the international contract price of LPG plunged to $490 per metric ton (MT), more than $300 lower than the October price of $804 per MT.
Fuel prices could also go down further as international oil prices continue to soften.
DOE data show that the regional benchmark Dubai crude had dropped to a Nov. 1-10 average of $57 a barrel from $67 a barrel last October.
Expect another rollback
The price of unleaded gasoline based on the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), benchmark for refined petroleum products, also fell to an average of $57 a barrel in the first 10 days of November, from October?s $80-a-barrel average.
MOPS-based diesel declined to a November average of $81 a barrel from $89 a barrel last October.
With international prices continuing to go down, Reyes said another rollback for fuel and cooking gas should be expected.
