Diesel price seen to go down, gasoline forecast mixed — industry source

The pump prices of petroleum products are expected to have mixed movements in the coming week.

Citing oil trading monitoring in the past four days (July 18-21), based on the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), an oil industry source told GMA News Online that the price per liter of diesel may be slashed by P1.60 to P1.80.

Gasoline, meanwhile, may increase by P0.05 per liter or have no change.

The projected pump price adjustments are still subject to change depending on the movement on Friday’s trading, according to the oil industry source.

The local oil industry uses MOPS, the daily average of all trading transactions between buyers and sellers of petroleum products as assessed and summarized by Standard and Poor’s Platts.

Asked for comment, Oil Industry Management Bureau Director Rino Abad confirmed that there is a possible rollback of more than P1 for diesel, while there might be no adjustment for gasoline.

For kerosene, the adjustment may be more or less P1, he said.

Abad said the European Central Bank’s (ECB) announcement of an interest rate hike caused the trading prices of fuel to go down.

The ECB raised its benchmark deposit rate by 50 basis points, its first rate hike in 11 years.

Oil companies usually announce price adjustment every Monday, to be implemented on the following day.

Effective Tuesday, July 19, fuel firms slashed gasoline prices by P5.00 per liter and diesel by P2.00 per liter.

The latest price movements brought the year-to-date total adjustments to stand at a net increase of P19.30 per liter for gasoline and P34.80 per liter for diesel.

Fuel prices are expected to continue their downtrend if the US Federal Reserve hikes its interest rates aggressively, as the move could temper economic activity or lower demand, which will eventually lower commodity prices, according to Abad. 

Latest data available from the DOE, as of July 19 to 21, show the price per liter of diesel range from P73.30 to P81.41 in Quezon City, Metro Manila’s largest city, while gasoline prices range between P70.20 and P77.45 per liter in Manila, the Philippines’ capital. —LBG/VBL, GMA News