WORLD OIL PRICES (Sep. 30-Oct. 4, 2013 trading days)

Dubai crude along with other oil benchmarks fell since Monday as tensions over Iran eased and a potential U.S. government shutdown clouded the outlook for demand.

U.S. President Barack Obama and new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the highest-level officials between the two countries finally talked as both sides seek to reach a deal over Iran's nuclear programme. A follow-up negotiation, which is expected to be held during the World’s power meeting in Geneva in mid- October further eased supply concerns.

Oil prices continued to slip lower until midweek on worries of prolonged U.S. government shutdown which may hurt demand in the world's biggest oil consumer. Although there was an average increase of about a dollar by the end of the week, on threat of Tropical Storm Karen over the Gulf of Mexico, analysts were of the opinion that an upside potential for oil is quite limited due to the negative impact of the US shutdown on the oil market.

Meanwhile, sentiment in the Asian gasoline market remained subdued as the product's cracks continued to decline under heavy selling interest in Singapore. Light distillates inventories in the city-state fell by 0.82 mil barrels to 10.41 mil barrels for the week ended October 2. Platts noted that while the decline in gasoline inventories reflected easing supply flow into Singapore, the market continued to be weighed down by sluggish regional demand.

Asian gasoil/diesel market remained bolstered as Vietnam emerged to seek some gasoil for November. Greater demand was also seen from Indonesia for October, and supply within the region remained tight on production run cuts as well as scheduled turnarounds in Japan.

Overall, Dubai crude declined week-on-week by about a dollar per barrel. MOPS gasoline also dropped by more than US$2/bbl contrary to MOPS diesel that increased by more than a dollar.

FOREX: The value of Peso against the US dollar remained at P43.34.

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, 8 October 2013, most of the oil companies implemented a roll-back in gasoline by P0.55/liter, but an increase by P0.35/liter for diesel.

On 1 October 2013, LPG was also decreased by P1.25/kg (VAT exclusive) due to a decrease in LPG Contract Price for October by US$26.50/MT to US$841/MT, from US$867.50/MT last month.

The year-to-date net increase stands now at P0.69/liter for gasoline, P2.23/liter for diesel, and a net decrease of P2.79/kg for LPG.

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