WORLD OIL PRICES (April 18-22,2022 trading days)

Dubai crude has increased week-on-week by roughly US$5.70/bbl. MOPS gasoline and MOPS diesel prices have risen as well by around US$7.70 and US$9.40 per barrel, respectively.

Reasons for the Price Adjustment1

Crude prices started to rise after OPEC’s warning of its inability to compensate for lost Russian crude, with Russia-Ukraine negotiations hitting a dead end. The price rise was further fueled after 370,000 b/d of production capacity is on force majeure from the Sharara and El Feel fields in Libya, as well as 165,000 b/d in recent exports from the Zueitina and Mellitah terminals due to protests with issues reported at several other fields and ports, such as Hariga, Brega and Zawiya.

Adding to the price rise was Russia’s warning of higher prices if more nations joined a ban on Russian energy imports. But the price rally cooled down after some profit taking in the futures market and weak demand fundamentals from China due to its zero-tolerance COVID policy, with further headwinds from a stronger dollar which was on pace for the highest close since March 2020.

The prices showed a brief increase after US crude stocks fell 8.02 million barrels to 413.73 million barrels in the week ended April 15, but started to fall again after the US Federal Reserve signaled a 50 basis points interest rate hike.

On gasoline, prices rose amid expectation that South Korea's gasoline exports will decrease in May amid a loosening of COVID-19 restrictions and announced tax cuts from 20% to 30% on domestic gasoline sales. This is already on top of strong demand from the region as Indonesia has been buying gasoline via tenders amid healthy demand due ongoing Ramadan festivities.

The diesel market in Asia seems to be rangebound as the market strengthened due to supply tightness. Nonetheless, the mark is seeing some alleviation as Singapore's onshore commercial middle distillate stockpiles rose 18.49% in the week of April 14-20 to hit a 22-week high of 9.02million barrels as exports increased from South Korea, Japan and India. There are reports that the RAPID refinery is expected to start in May 2022 which would further increase supplies in the region. The same seems to be reflecting in the market structure, which has been falling since last few days. Although strong demand, as the economies open up, continues to keep the market supported.

FOREX: Philippine peso depreciated week-on-week against the US dollar by P0.34 to P52.36 from P52.02
in previous week.
1 Asia Pacific Weekly Recap by S & P Global Platts Analytics 

DOMESTIC OIL PRICES

Effective 26 April 2022, the oil companies implemented a price increase in domestic oil products.
Gasoline has increased by P3.00 per liter, diesel by P4.10 per liter, and kerosene by P3.50 per liter.
These resulted to the year-to-date adjustments to stand at a net increase of P18.45/liter for gasoline,
P31.45/liter for diesel and P25.05/liter for kerosene.

For the updated prevailing retail pump price, please browse this link: https://www.doe.gov.ph/price-monitoring-charts?q=retail-pump-prices-metr....

For more information, call the

Department of Energy
Pricing: 840-2187
LPG: 840-2130
Fuels: 840-5669
SMS: (0915) 4469421
Email: oilmonitor@doe.gov.ph
Website: https://www.doe.gov.ph

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1 Asia Pacific Weekly Recap by S & P Global Platts Analytics