WORLD OIL PRICES (Mar 11-15, 2013 trading days) 

Prices generally continued its declining trend for about a month now, as Dubai crude slid further last week by about sixty cents a barrel. Similarly, MOPS gasoline dropped by almost US$2/bbl, slightly higher than the week-on-week decrease in diesel of about US$1.50/bbl.

Analysts disclosed the following factors that weighed on the week’s oil price downward trend over the whole week:

• Ample crude supplies and worries about the eurozone economy (e.g. industrial production across the 17 euro countries fell by a worse-than-expected 0.4 percent in January) 
• The USDOE Energy Information Administration report of a larger-than-expected increase in U.S. crude inventories in the week ending March 8, 2012; 
  • Crude supplies rose by 2.6 million barrels to 384 million, higher than analyst’s expectation of 2.3 million barrels. 
  • The increase puts oil in storage 10.5 percent higher than levels one year earlier 
• The International Energy Agency (IEA) trimmed its forecast for 2013 global oil demand growth in its Oil Market Report for March due to: 
  • Continued deterioration in the European economic environment,
  • Signs of a potential slowdown in China and 
  • Automatic U.S. government spending cuts
• OPEC Oil Market Report for March cut down its world demand estimate for OPEC crude in 2013 by 0.10 million b/d;
• U.S. dollar appreciation of 0.4 percent against a basket of foreign currencies. A stronger dollar index makes oil more expensive for holders of other currencies; thus commands lower oil demand and prices.

Meanwhile, Platts noted a relatively weak demand sentiment in the Asian gasoil/diesel market despite additional demand seen from Vietnam. On the other hand, gasoline was observed to have healthy fundamentals ahead due to persistent Vietnamese demand emerging in the middle of the Asian refinery maintenance season.
 

FOREX: Philippine Peso appreciated against the US dollar by P0.09 to P40.64, from P40.73 in previous week.

Other recommended reference sites: 
(1) http://www.aip.com.au/pricing (2) http://www.med.govt.nz/ers/oil_pet/prices/prices.html

DOMESTIC OIL PRICES

Effective 16 March 2012, most of the oil companies implemented their fourth consecutive 
price rollback, P0.45/liter for gasoline and kerosene, and P0.40/liter for diesel.

The price rollback slashed further the year-to-date net increase in gasoline to P0.50/liter, while that of diesel resulted to a net decrease of P0.40/liter.

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: http://www.doe.gov.ph