WORLD OIL PRICES (April 1-5, 2013 trading days) 

The recent reports of swelling U.S. crude inventories and weak economic data reversed earlier manifestations of oil price up-trend. However, while Dubai crude dropped in the last three consecutive trading days last week, overall average remains a dollar higher than in previous week.

The U.S. crude inventories, according to US Energy Information Administration, rose to their highest since 1990, totalling more than 388 million barrels, and close to the all-time peak hit in 1982 of 391.9 million barrels. The supply glut was reportedly caused by a shutdown of ruptured Exxon Mobil Pegasus pipeline, which moves crude oil from Illinois to the refinery-rich Texas Gulf Coast.

Other reports that have added concerns to oil demand growth in big consuming nations, and consequently affected oil price trend were the following:

• Seasonal refinery maintenance in Europe's hit crude oil demand; 
• Contraction of Britain's manufacturing activity for a second straight month in March; 
• High US jobless claims in the week ending 30 March 2013; 
• Weaker-than-expected private-sector jobs growth in the US in March; 
• Waning winter season; 
• Economic pump priming by the Bank of Japan, pushing the US dollar up sharply versus the yen as U.S. Treasury debt prices also advanced; 

As regards the petroleum products, Platts noted Asian gasoline to have fallen sharply by the end of the week in line with plunging US gasoline prices and weakness in the European market.

For gasoil/diesel, steady inventory volumes have been observed despite the boosted sentiment in Asian region, probably due to the significant drop in export volumes from Singapore.

FOREX: Philippine Peso depreciated against the US dollar by P0.17 to P40.96, from P40.89 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 9 April 2013, most of the oil companies implemented a decrease of P0.45/liter for gasoline and an increase of P0.25/liter for diesel.

Year-to-date, gasoline has a net increase of P0.15/liter, while diesel has a net decrease of P0.72/liter, as shown in the table below.

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