Oil firms earned P1.28B more from overpricing -think-tank

Oil companies profited P1.28 billion more than they should have in the first six months of the year, the think-tank Ibon Foundation claimed Wednesday. Based on its computations, Ibon said oil firms overpriced fuel by 83 centavos a liter. The think-tank said based on the combined impact of Dubai crude oil prices and the foreign exchange movement from January to July 2006, pump oil prices should only have increased by P5.33 per liter, but actual adjustments hiked prices by P6.16 per liter. "The July 3-12 average of Dubai crude is pegged at $68.76 per barrel while the foreign exchange (FOREX) is around P52.55 to a US dollar. Current Dubai crude price is now almost 18% higher than its monthly average at the start of the year while the (foreign exchange) is 0.1% lower," Ibon said in a statement. "These figures belie the claims of oil companies and the Department of Energy that there is a need to further increase pump prices because of high global oil prices. On the contrary, there is a strong basis to rollback pump prices if only to compensate for the overpricing of petroleum products in the past," it said. It added that of the P1.28 billion, around P488.7 million went to partly-government-owned Petron Corp., P411.52 million to Pilipinas Shell, and P202.24 million to Chevron (formerly Caltex) Philippines. Minor oil players got P177.54 million, IBON said, adding its estimates are based on the 2005 market share of oil companies. -GMANews.TV