By Sheldeen Joy Talavera, Reporter
MOTORISTS can expect one other round of rollbacks this week, with diesel and kerosene prices set to say no for a 3rd straight week.
The Department of Energy (DoE) said diesel prices should go down by no less than P12.94 per liter, starting April 28.
“The estimated pump price range for diesel is from P75.93 to P101.96,” Energy Secretary Sharon S. Garin told reporters at a media briefing.
The DoE chief said fuel retailers should cut kerosene prices by no less than P15.71 per liter.
Then again, gasoline prices are expected to go up by as much as P0.53 per liter.
“That is being calculated based on specific accounting procedures. It shouldn’t be just based on market behavior or expectations, but on what happened last week,” Ms. Garin said.
Unioil Petroleum Philippines, Inc. said it’s going to implement the government-mandated price adjustments.
Ms. Garin warned that oil firms are mandated to comply with the worth adjustment limits set by the federal government. She noted that if an oil firm doesn’t follow the DoE advisory, then cases will likely be filed.
An industry source earlier said that the markets have remained highly event-driven, with shipping interruption and resulting disruption in supply flows triggering the volatility in prices.
The US-Israel war on Iran, which began on Feb. 28, has disrupted global oil supplies and drove crude oil prices up by around 50%.
RUSSIAN OIL
Meanwhile, the US has granted a one-month extension to the Philippines allowing it to buy oil from Russia, Energy Undersecretary Alessandro O. Sales said.
“There’s a brand new waiver effective from April 17 to May 16… So, there may be an existing waiver period again,” Mr. Sales said at the identical press briefing.
Mr. Sales said that the one-month extension doesn’t only apply to the Philippines, but other countries as well.
The Philippines had earlier asked the US to increase a waiver to buy Russian oil after it expired on April 11,
The Philippines is a net importer of crude oil and sources most of its supply from the Middle East, the world’s biggest oil-producing region.
In search of to diversify its energy sources, the Philippines has tapped Russian oil when the US temporarily lifted sanctions on imports for one month.
Last month, the country’s sole refiner, Petron, acquired 2.48 million barrels of Russian crude oil as “a rare emergency measure” to source additional supply.
To spice up oil buffer, the federal government has also moved to acquire barrels of diesel since March from different countries through state-run Philippine National Oil Co.
Following the complete delivery of 4 shipments of diesel, the Philippines has to this point imported 1.12 million barrels.
“Because the Middle East conflict continues, our priority is to make sure that the Philippines stays prepared, adequately supplied, and capable of respond swiftly to developments which will affect fuel availability and market stability,” Ms. Garin said.
As of April 24, the Philippines’ fuel inventory could last for 54 days, increasing from the 52 days recorded last week.
The common inventory for gasoline is 53.91 days, while diesel has a median inventory of 54.61 days. Kerosene has a median inventory of 168.74 days, 70.83 days for jet fuel, 67.55 days for fuel oil, and 38.44 days for liquefied petroleum gas.
“The variety of days didn’t decrease because the availability is being replenished constantly, whilst we devour 34 million liters of diesel day-after-day,” Ms. Garin said in Filipino.