(Eagle News) – Because of retreating oil prices in the world market, Philippine oil companies are expected to also lower their oil prices next week.
An oil price rollback looms with gasoline prices forecast to go down by P2.50 to P2.70 per liter, while diesel prices would decrease by around P2 per liter, based on industry estimates. Kerosene prices are also expected to go down.
But the decrease in prices could be higher depending on the actual price adjustments to be made by oil firms that usually takes effect on a Tuesday.
In this case, the price rollback would be effective on April 5.
Oil prices this week retreated, with the US benchmark WTI contract dipping under $100 a barrel.
In a bid to ease oil prices, the 31-nation International Energy Agency agreed to tap emergency oil reserves again at an emergency ministerial meeting following a pledge to release over 60 million barrels.
The IEA, whose members include the United States, European countries, Japan and other nations allied to Washington, said it would make the new amount public early next week.
The move came a day after Biden announced a record release of oil onto the market — one million barrels of US government oil every day for six months in a bid to ease prices.
Biden described the move as a “wartime” measure that will defuse Russia’s leverage as an energy power.
Brent North Sea crude went down by 0.5 percent at $104.39 per barrel on Friday, while the West Texas Intermediate went down by a full percent settling at $99.27 per barrel
(with a report from Agence France Presse)
