OIL companies are expected to slash fuel prices next week, the Department of Energy (DOE) said yesterday, October 18.
DOE Oil Industry Management Bureau director Rodela Romero said the following per liter rollback was expected:
* gasoline – P0.50 to P0.75
* diesel – P1 to P1.15
* kerosene – P0.90 to P1
Oil prices slid on reports that Israeli Prime Minister (PM) Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Joe Biden he would not strike Iran’s crude or nuclear facilities.
In mid-October, Iran’s retaliatory missile attacks on Israel sent crude prices soaring on fears that further strikes in response would disrupt oil supplies.
But reports of the Israeli PM’s assurances “alleviated some of that supply concern,” said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
“With the geopolitical risk-premium falling, prices are once again being led by the struggling demand picture,” he added.
The International Energy Agency said global oil markets remained “adequately” supplied thanks to the end of a Libyan oil blockade, weaker demand and relatively modest output losses from hurricanes in the US Gulf Coast.
Adding to downward pressure is concern that China, the world’s largest crude importer, is failing to reignite its ailing economy.
Investors have been left disappointed by lack of detail from China Finance Minister Lan Fo’an over the scale of stimulus measures to jumpstart the world’s second-largest economy. (ABS-CBN News/with a report from Agence France-Presse)
