AT A GLANCE
The colliding factors which influenced oil prices last week had been the niggling forecast of slower global economic growth and inventory drop in the US versus the production cut of Saudi Arabia extending into August as well as the pronouncement of the US Federal Reserve on continued enforcement of interest rate hikes.
Motorists using diesel products will pay more next week while gasoline users can look forward to a price cut, according to the oil companies.
Industry players said diesel prices may rise by P0.55 to P0.85 per liter while RON92 gasoline, which is widely patronized in the Philippines, will likely be down by P0.30 to P0.60 per liter. For RON95 gasoline products though, the calculation is a marginal hike of P0.05 to P0.15 per liter.
For kerosene, which is a commodity generally used in households and as a base for aviation fuel, there is expectation for a moderate increase of P0.35 to P0.65 per liter.
Being the usual grind in the domestic petroleum sector, the oil firms will be adjusting their prices on Tuesday, July 11, to be anchored on the cost swings of the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), the reference pricing being employed by the industry.
As culled from the monitoring report of the Department of Energy (DOE), price adjustments since the start of the year logged net decreases of P3.70 per liter for diesel and P6.00 per liter for kerosene while gasoline products posted aggregate hike of P5.85 per liter.
Pricing seesaw dominated global oil markets last week with prices going down in the initial trading days due to the broader inventory drop reported by the United States, the world’s biggest oil consumer due to lingering concerns of slower global economic growth.
The antithesis to those developments, however, had been last week’s pronouncement of the US Federal Reserve that interest rate hikes would still very much be on its agenda and the announcement of Saudi Arabia on its production cut extending into August.
The colliding factors influencing oil prices essentially pushed international benchmark Brent crude above $78 per barrel as of end-week trading on July 7 from a lower base of $75 per barrel level in the prior week.
Other geopolitical factors monitored in global oil markets had been the month-on-month decline in Venezuela’s oil production as well as the oil tankers of Iran that had been seized by the US Navy in the Gulf of Oman.
Closer to home, industry traders are also closely keeping track of the ‘energy crunch’ predicament of Singapore that had been compounded by the power price cap enforced by its government, as that too, could exert pressure on fuel commodities being traded in the region in the days and weeks ahead.
