WORLD OIL PRICES (Jan 12-16, 2015 trading days)

Crude oil prices continue to remain under pressure amid persistent concerns regarding high levels of crude oil inventories along with a slowdown of global oil demand growth.

While prices found some support from reports of a drop in U.S. drilling rigs, which signify a likely fall in future production, and prediction by the International Energy Agency that reversal in the trend was possible this year, analysts still believe that prices may fall further before rising given the current abundance of supply in the market.

Another reason that pushed prices lower last week was the significant downward pressure on the economy that China is now facing. A report is expected this week, to show Chinese growth slowing to 7.2 percent from a year ago, the weakest since the depths of the last global economic crisis. Data from China's National Bureau of Statistics on Sunday showed house prices fell for a fourth straight month.

Moreover, Iraq Oil Minister Adel Abdel Mehdi disclosed that Iraq pumped a record 4 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil in December, as output rose from its southern terminals and supply from the north surged.

In Asia, Platts noted that as of Friday last week, the sentiment in the Asian gasoline market remained bearish amid the seasonal winter lull in North Asia, while arbitrage cargoes continued to saturate the region. Arbitrage cargoes are reportedly flowing in from the Mediterranean, Europe and India.

As for gasoil/diesel, the contango structure remained largely unchanged. Lower exports from China and falling stockpiles in the region was balanced out by sluggish demand, Platts said. China, the world's second biggest oil consumer has issued the first round of oil product export quotas for 2015, with gasoil quota lower than the same period last year.

Overall, Dubai crude decreased week-on-week by about US$4.50/bbl. Similarly, both MOPS gasoline and diesel decreased by about US$4.40 and US$4.50 per barrel, respectively.

FOREX: Peso per US dollar rate depreciated by P0.21 to P44.79, from P45.00 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 19 January 2015, most of the oil companies implemented a decrease of P1.45/liter for diesel and P1.25/liter for gasoline and kerosene.

Consecutive weekly rollbacks since the beginning of the year totaled P3.90 for gasoline and P3.75 for diesel.

* RON 95

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