WORLD OIL PRICES (Jan 19-23, 2015 trading days)

Several reports and views from the industry and market experts caused oil prices to snap down and up over the week. Oil prices also responded to the recently released US oil inventory data which said to have shown the biggest build in about fourteen years. The following was said to have influenced the oil market in the past week:

• Reduced production investment. Energy companies Total SA joined a raft of international oil companies, including BP Plc and ConocoPhillips in slashing budgets in light of the recent plunge in prices.

• OPEC and IEA forecast. OPEC Secretary General and the International Energy Agency's chief economist expect oil prices to rebound later this year;

  Decision of European Central Bank on stimulus. Investors widely expect the ECB will announce a major asset-purchase program, or quantitative easing, after its monetary policy meeting Thursday, in a bid to revive growth in the ailing Eurozone;

  Biggest build in US inventory. US-EIA report disclosed the biggest build of 10.1 million barrel build in U.S. crude inventory, the largest weekly increase in at least 14 years.

As regards the products market in Asia, Platts stressed that gasoline may find some support in the months ahead with less exports expected from China ahead of the Lunar New Year. But some industry analysts believed that incremental demand for the Lunar New Year is unlikely to dent the current supply overhang in the region. Thus, ample supply is likely to keep sentiment low in the Asian gasoline market in the near term.

Meanwhile, gasoil market was on a downtrend, as thin demand succumbed to heavy exports from North Asia, particularly ultra-low sulphur diesel which has been weighed down by higher exports from Japan. Platts further noted that there were four to five more than the usual volume of cargoes from Japan for January loading, and slightly lesser exports for February.

Overall Dubai crude increased week-on-week by about US$0.85/bbl. MOPS gasoline increased as well nearly US$1.50/bbl contrary to MOPS diesel that dropped by US$0.15/bbl.

FOREX: Peso per US dollar rate appreciated by P0.37 to P44.42, from P44.79 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

With the week-on-week movements in MOPS averages, majority of the oil companies implemented a price increase of P0.30/liter for gasoline and a rollback of P0.10/liter for diesel effective 27 January 2014.

The total adjustments to-date stands at a net decrease of P3.60 for gasoline and P3.85 for diesel

* RON 95

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