WORLD OIL PRICES (July 15-19, 2013 trading days)

Dubai crude continuously recuperated reaching its four-months high by the end of the week, chasing Brent and WTI. Brent stood at its highest price in three months in Thursday’s (18 July 2013) posting, while WTI hit the highest level in 16 months at US$108/bbl on signs of a stronger U.S. economy.

An unexpected drop in jobless claims helped spur U.S. oil to a 16-month high, narrowing its differential with Brent crude amid growing signals of strengthening domestic demand. This was confirmed by reports that refiners in the country are consuming the highest amount of crude since August 2005, while crude inventories have tumbled for three consecutive weeks.

As for products market in Asia, Platts noted of the maintained upward momentum in gasoil/diesel as a result of low stocks seen in Singapore. Stocks of middle distillates in Asia’s key trading hub fell 15.3% or 1.266 million barrels to the lowest level in more than five years to stand at 6.997 million barrels in the week ended July 17. This could be due to increased exports to Indonesia and Malaysia over the Ramadan period, which exports totalled 278 thousand metric tons over July 11to 17. Australia was also one of the top three importers of gasoil from Singapore over the same period.

Middle East and Africa’s strong demand for gasoil also sustained a tight market. Saudi Aramco is expected to import 6 million-7 million barrels of gasoil for August, to meet air-conditioning usage in the summer.

Meanwhile, Asian gasoline fundamentals remained bullish in the prompt. Though, Platts noted that tight demand-supply situation would likely ease in the second-half of August because of a smaller Indonesian lifting program and higher regional supply amid robust gasoline cracks.

Dubai crude generally increased week-on-week by almost a dollar to US$105/bbl. As regards MOPS gasoline, though prices slowly receded from Monday posting, this week’s average of US$125/bbl is almost US$2 higher than in previous week. Diesel as well escalated in the same period by about a dollar, to US$124/bbl.

FOREX: Peso appreciated against the US dollar by P0.07 to P43.39 last week, from P43.46 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 today, 23 July 2013, most of the oil companies implemented an increase of P0.50/liter for gasoline, P0.35/liter for diesel and P0.50/liter for kerosene. Adjustments for gasoline and diesel include the impact of the biofuels, bioethanol for gasoline and CME for diesel.

These adjustments resulted to a higher year-to-date net increase for gasoline and diesel, which stood at P3.90 and P2.58 per liter, respectively.

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