April 2023 – PIP – Philippine Institute of Petroleum

WORLD OIL PRICES (April 17-21, 2023 trading days)

The week-on-week price of Dubai crude has decreased by around $2.20/bbl. MOPS prices of gasoline, diesel and kerosene have also decreased per barrel by about $6.30, $4.00 and $2.50, respectively, during the reference week.

Reasons for the Price Adjustment¹

The week’s increase in oil prices was largely driven by the following:

Oil prices fell this week, weighed down by concerns of another rate hike by the US Fed and prospects of weaker global economic growth. Weakening Asian refining margins prompted some refiners to consider cutting throughput.

o The Singapore refining margin was range bound during the week as gasoline cracks led the losses. Weak refining margins have prompted some export-oriented Northeast Asian refiners to consider cutting throughput rates.

Asian gasoline crack weakened, tracking a narrowing RBOB-Brent crack amid reports of a build in US gasoline inventories and weakness in US demand. Speculations around the release of additional export quotas from China also added to sentiment.

o Chinese exports are expected to rise on the back of an anticipated release of the second batch of export quota by end-April.

o The latest EIA data showed gasoline stocks built by 1.30 million barrels in the week ending April 14. Gasoline inventories on the US Atlantic Coast climbed as well by 1.3 million barrels, which helped put downward pressure on NYMEX RBOB futures.

Asian gasoil crack weakened, weighed down by speculations around a second batch of clean oil product export quotas from China, demand concerns amid macroeconomic uncertainties, and a narrowing East-West EFS.

FOREX: The week-on-week average of Philippine peso depreciated versus the US dollar by P0.95 to P56.01 from P55.06 in previous week.

DOMESTIC OIL PRICES

Effective 25 April 2023, the oil companies implemented a per liter decrease of P1.40 for gasoline, P0.70 for diesel and P0.20 for Kerosene.

These resulted to a year-to-date net decrease for diesel at P3.05/liter and kerosene at P3.55/liter. Gasoline on the other hand, has a net increase of P7.55/liter.

For the updated prevailing retail pump price, please browse this link: https://www.doe.gov.ph/price-monitoring-charts?q=retail-pump-prices-metro-manila.

For more information, call the

Department of Energy
Pricing: 840-2187
LPG: 840-2130
Fuels: 840-5669
Website: https://www.doe.gov.ph

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¹ Asia-Pacific Weekly Recap 21 April 2023 by S&P Global Platts Analytics