Total, Eastern roll back oil prices
New players Total and Eastern Petroleum Corp. Monday rolled back the 40-centavo per liter increase implemented on their diesel prices last week after the country’s major oil firms decided to adjust the prices of their gasoline products by 60 centavos per liter.
“To maintain market competitiveness, Total will reduce its prices by 40 centavos per liter for diesel and kerosene effective 2 p.m.,” a company official said Monday.
Eastern Petroleum Corp. president Fer Martinez, meanwhile, said the supposed increase in diesel could still be implemented “depending on the move of its competitors.”
Total raised its gasoline prices by 60 centavos a liter on Friday while Eastern implemented its price adjustment by the same amount on Saturday.
The rollback in diesel and kerosene was announced Monday.
The price reduction came after market leader Petron Corp. increased only its gasoline prices Monday. Pilipinas Shell also implemented the same price adjustment on Satuday. Both firms said the increase was necessary to recover the Clean Air Act (CAA) implementation costs they have incurred.
“The increase reflects additional cost for CAA compliance. There will be no movement on diesel and kerosene,” Petron and Shell said separately.
Monitoring by the Department of Energy showed that uncertainty in Iraq and the ongoing strike of petroleum workers in Venezuela have pushed up market prices both world crude oil and refined petroleum products. L. Lectura
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