ENERGY Sec. Jose Rene Almendras should make good on his promise to investigate the oil companies. Last week, he issued the threat after the oil companies, once again, appeared too
slow in lowering pump prices following the dipping trend in global crude prices. In contrast, the general observation is that oil companies are ultra sensitive to increases in world crude prices, triggering pump price hikes at the slightest uptick of global prices.
Sec. Almendras said last week that based on the Department of Energy’s computations, pump prices should be cut by P2 a liter. Actually, his department’s computation was the most conservative. Some computations claim the roll back should be P5 a liter, while others claim it should be even higher. An investigation by the Department of Energy (DOE) should be able to clear that up. The DOE, along with the Department of Justice, make up a task force mandated to montior local pump prices and to check whether oil firms are being fair to consumers.
Besides the investigation, however, Sec. Almendras should look for long-term solutions to help bring about transparency in the determination of pump prices. To do that, the Energy department should urge all oil firms to list publicly in the stock market.
A law requiring Pilipinas Shell to list already exists, but it has managed to get around that. And as
we said before in this space, the government should compel all local oil companies to list publicly.
This would be fair to Shell, which is being required to do so because it operates a refinery. In its case, Shell might view the requirement to list as a penalty for investing in the Philippines. So to avoid that, all should list. No exemptions.
By listing publicly, oil firms would be compelled to open their books to the public. There will be greater scrutiny of their business dealings, because they will be required to disclose their activities. In essense, there should be no need to threaten the oil firms with a probe, because listing will already require them to be transparent.
