Leading Oil Refiner in Philippines: Petron

Petron Corp., the country’s leading oil refiner, announced that it will cut its fuel prices by P0.75 per liter for gasoline and P0.25 per liter for diesel and kerosene starting 6 a.m. Monday to reflect the softening of world oil prices.

“This is to reflect movements in the international oil markets,” Petron said in a media advisory on Sunday afternoon.

Petron made the announcement after the Department of Energy said that Flying V and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. planned to cut prices this week.

The price cut comes after three successive oil prices increases in January totaling P1.75 per liter for gasoline and P2.25 per liter for diesel.

Energy Undersecretary Jay Layug told reporters that oil firms Flying V and Shell have indicated a possible price cut this week.

Flying V and Shell have not made a formal announcement on their impending price cuts.

“Part of that really is that in the international market, prices are going down because China announced that it will increase interest rates to hold inflation because they noticed that the economy has been going too fast and therefore, the demand for oil is going very high,” Layug said.

He said the announcement of Saudi Arabia to increase oil production also helped bring down prices.

“Shell told us Friday they will cut prices but no specific amount because they said that the market is going down. I hope that would be good for the transport group,” Layug said.

Layug commended Shell and Petron for offering a P1 per liter fuel discount to the transport sector.

He said Chevron (formerly Caltex) is also “considering giving a P1 per liter fuel discount.”

Petron on Friday announced that it will roll-out the Pinoy Diesel lanes in selected service stations in Metro Manila starting Saturday.