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By Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo, Reporter
A day after an independent oil firm initiated a
rollback in gasoline prices, the Department of Energy warned that it
will be closely monitoring oil firms’ pump adjustments to make
sure these are solely driven by “market forces.”
Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes on Thursday said,
“We will see to it that oil companies do not unreasonably price
their products” in light of a P1 rollback implemented by Flying V,
whose move was followed by oil giants Petron Corp. and Pilipinas
Shell Petroleum Corp. on Wednesday.
Although the Energy secretary welcomed the price
cut, which came as a surprise to consumers given the weekly
increases being implemented by oil companies since April, he said
there is a need to make sure such adjustments were borne out of the
softening of demand for gasoline.
“And so the price of diesel had gone up faster
than gasoline and presented a window of opportunity for dealers to
drop gasoline prices,” Reyes added.
He maintained that market forces should be the
only determinant to adjustments of pump prices.
Ramon Villavicencio, Flying V chairman, said
earlier that the company was able to lower its gasoline prices after
it was able to recoup its under-recoveries. The company still has P6
to recover from diesel prices as a result of high crude prices.
Since world oil prices posted significant
increases this year, breaking record highs several times, the
prevailing domestic price in Metro Manila of unleaded gasoline has
reached P59.10 to P61.07 per liter; kerosene, P57.10 to P60.30 per
liter; and diesel, P53 to P54.97 per liter—almost double last
year’s prices.
But the rollback initiated by Flying V may only
offer a brief respite for consumers from soaring pump prices as oil
prices have started to pick up again in the world market.
Villavicencio said Flying V will continue to
monitor international prices to see if price reductions can still be
extended to consumers.
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