DOE exec: Expect more fuel price rollbacks

MANILA, Philippines – Consumers can expect another round of fuel price rollbacks after last weekend’s price cuts implemented by oil firms, a Department of Energy (DOE) official said Tuesday.

DOE Oil Industry Management Bureau Director Zenaida Monsada said there is still more room to bring down prices of fuel, based on their weekly price monitoring data.

"Hindi kami magsasabi kung magkano dahil wala tayong maliwanag na pricing formula. Pero meron kaming indication kung magkano ang dapat asahan, pero ‘di namin sasabihin sa publiko," Monsada said in an interview on dzBB radio.

[We are not going to give figures on the rollback as we have no clear pricing formula. But, we have seen indications of how much it should be, though we won’t tell it to the public.]

"DOE Secretary Angelo Reyes had said we can expect another price rollback," she added.

She noted that the Big Three – Petron, Chevron and Shell – had rolled back prices by P1.50/liter, while UniOil rolled back its prices by P4.75 per liter.

Monsada said Secretary Reyes will meet representatives of the Big Three to ask them to explain the discrepancy between their rollback and that of UniOil’s.

Reyes believes the Big Three did not roll back prices of their products fair enough.

But Monsada admitted the DOE cannot peg oil prices because of the industry’s deregulated nature.

Still, she said fuel prices in the Philippines are lower than in other Asian countries, except for Malaysia where she said oil prices are subsidized.

GMANews.TV

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Tags: DOE, Petron, Shell, UniOil, Zenaida Monsada