WORLD OIL PRICES (June 9-13, 2014 trading days)
Oil prices were relatively steady early of the week until an escalation of sectarian fighting in Iraq sent crude prices higher by more than US$3 a barrel by the end of the week. Market concerns persisted as the escalating insurgency could disrupt oil exports from the second-largest OPEC producer.
Sunni Islamist militants, who took over Iraq's second-biggest city Mosul earlier this week, extended their advance south toward Baghdad and surrounded the country's largest refinery in the northern town of Baiji on Thursday, 12 June 2014. The Sunni insurgents are threatening the 300,000-barrel per day Baiji refinery.
Nonetheless, Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi assured that the bulk of Iraq's oil production and export facilities are in largely Shi'ite areas in the south of the country. Those facilities, which ship about 2.6 million barrels per day are declared safe and still far from the Islamist rebel fighters as of Friday, 13 June 2014.
Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Oil Market Report for June, which was released last Friday, played down fears over the possible loss of oil exports from Iraq. This supported US President Obama’s assessment, which further stressed that if insurgents took control of Iraq refineries, other oil producers in the Middle East would need to help "pick up the slack".
Relative to the Asian market, Platts noted that gasoline sentiment had insignificant changes over the week. While posting went up more than a dollar by the end of the week, the market remained balance. Platts further noted that regional gasoline consumption is expected to peak in July. Nevertheless, return of refineries in South Korea, Taiwan, China and Vietnam from maintenance by then would be more to offset the increase in demand. It is noted that demand would remain firm due to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Eid al-Fitr festival from end- June to July. As such, higher Ramadan demand absorbs rising supply.
On the other hand, gasoil/diesel supply in Asia and the Middle East is reportedly exceeding demand as buyers' purchases have not kept up with rising production. Steady demand from typical importers such as Indonesia and Saudi Arabia has fallen short of the seasonal surge seen in previous years. It was further stated that gasoil market would hinge on supply, as the demand outlook was unlikely to change substantially. Even as refineries have begun to restart after turnarounds, the softening gasoil market has prompted some plants to cut run rates, e.g. Japan refiner JX Nippon Oil decided to cut its planned crude throughput volume by 4.9% to 3.91 million kl or 819,771 b/d for the domestic market.
Overall, week-on-week Dubai crude increased by US$1.35/bbl. Similarly, MOPS gasoline increased by about US$1.45/bbl as well as diesel by about US$1.30/bbl.
FOREX: Week-on-week value of Peso appreciated against the US dollar by P 0.12 to P43.69, from P43.81, in the preceding week.
Other recommended reference sites:
(1) https://www.aip.com.au/pricing (2) https://www.med.govt.nz/ers/oil_pet/prices/prices.html
DOMESTIC OIL PRICES
Effective today, 17 June 2014, most of the oil companies implemented an increase of P0.20/liter for gasoline, P0.30/liter for diesel and P0.55/liter for kerosene.
Year-to-date, total price adjustments stands now at a net decrease of P2.20/liter for diesel while zero for gasoline (total increase equals total decrease.
As monitored, shown below are the retail prices in Metro Manila beginning 17 June 2014. | ||
Products | Price Range | Common Price |
P/liter | ||
Diesel | 40.48-44.55 | 43.20 |
Gasoline* | 49.80-56.75 | 53.80 |
Auto-LPG | 31.61-33.58 | |
LPG, P/11-kg cylinders | 682.00-811.00 | |
*RON 95 |
For more information, call the
Department of Energy:
Pricing: 840-2187
LPG: 840-2130
Fuels: 840-5669
SMS: (0915) 4469421
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://www.doe.gov.ph