Oil companies are rolling back prices for the second consecutive weeks on expectations supply disruptions in the Gulf of Mexico would only be short-term while fears of a global recession continue.
According to the Department of Energy (DOE), average per liter prices in Manila as of August 9 stood at P73.85 for gasoline (RON95); P72.70 for diesel and; P79.22 for kerosene.
Caltex and Seaoil reduced per liter prices by P0.10 on gasoline, P1.05 on diesel and P0.45 on kerosene.
Clean Fuel and PTT adjusted per liter prices downward by P0.10 on gasoline and P1.05 on diesel.
The DOE said as of August 9, year-to-date adjustments on petroleum products stood at a total net increase of P17.55 per liter for gasoline, P30.15 per liter for diesel and P24.75 per liter for kerosene.
Reuters reported that as of Friday last week, Brent crude futures fell by 1.5 percent and settled at $98.15 a barrel while US West Texas Intermediate crude dropped by 2.4 percent to end at $92.09 per barrel.
Last week, damaged oil pipelines were discovered that affected seven offshore US Gulf of Mexico oil platforms. These have since been fixed which allowed the resumption of more than 410,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd).
Despite this, prices were still pulled by the contrasting demand views from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA).
OPEC cut its forecast for growth in world oil demand in 2022 by 260,000 bpd as it now expects demand to rise by 3.1 million bpd this year.
Meanwhile, the IEA raised its demand growth forecast to 2.1 million bpd, citing gas-to-oil switching in power generation. – Jed Macapagal