Independent oil player Seaoil Philippines again took the lead in implementing price rollbacks after it made official Monday a P1 per liter reduction on its gasoline prices.
This developed as the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers Association (LPGMA) announced a 50-centavo a kilo price cut, marking its third cutback for the month, group president Arnel Ty said.
“The rollback worth 50 centavos a kilo would take effect at midnight (Tuesday),” Ty said in announcing the good news Monday noon. Rey Jimenez, Seaoil spokesperson, said the adjustment took effect as 12:01 a.m. Monday. It was the company’s fourth price cut in five weeks; local oil firms did not tweak pump prices last week.
Seaoil, considered a small player in the oil industry with fewer than 200 retail branches nationwide, did not announce changes in its prices of diesel and kerosene.
The gasoline price slash was made to reflect the downtrend in the world market, Jimenez said.
Last February 1, Seaoil also beat its fellow independent players and the “Big Three” oil firms to the punch by imposing cutbacks worth 50 centavos on the retail price of gasoline and 75 centavos on the retail prices of diesel and kerosene.
As of Monday, Seaoil’s retail prices stood at P41 for gasoline (unleaded); P32.50 for diesel; and P43 for kerosene.
Other oil firms, particularly oil giants Piliipinas Shell, Petron Corp., and Chevron Philippines have yet to respond to the small player’s price adjustment. The usual knock on the big oil firms, consumers have noted, is that they are slow to bring down prices even when the world market allows it.
The petroleum companies even skipped last week as far as rollbacks are concerned, with the oil industry focused on the tax debacle between the Bureau of Customs (BoC) and Shell over the latter’s alleged unpaid excise taxes amounting to P7.3 billion.
The BoC, it was recalled, threatened to hold off Shell’s fuel importations at the Tabangao, Batangas oil depot as response to the unsettled taxes. Shell, which has since secured a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the matter, said keeping their products at bay would result to a fuel shortage in the country.
However, Unioil Philippines General Manager Chito Medina-Cue Jr. deflated the oil giant’s claim of a shortage, saying the glut of independent players in the country can ensure an uninterrupted supply of fuel.
BoC Commissioner Napoleon Morales said that other oil firms have pledged to jack up product supply in the light of the tax row.
The LPGMA president said: “This is our third rollback for this month since contract prices are on a downtrend.”
It was recalled that the LPGMA implemented half-peso price reductions last February 2 and 9. Since a regular LPG cylinder weighs 11 kilos, a 50-cent per kilo cut would translate to a P5.50 markdown per tank.
Ty said that their cooking gas tanks would now retail for P580, which he pointed out is “P50 to P60 cheaper” than those coming from big oil companies such as Pilipinas Shell (Shellane) and Petron Corp. (Gasul).
Last January, LPGMA member-brands pulled down retail price by an accumulated P22. This means that their cooking gas cylinders have shed at least P38.50 in price since the start of the year.
The oil giants, who comprise 75 percent of the local LPG market, have yet to answer the small retailers’ successive rollbacks.
What’s better news according to Ty is that they anticipate more price cuts coming in the coming weeks.
“We’re seeing weekly price cuts until the month of May because we expect contract prices to drop further,” he said.
