Shell, Petron to slash oil prices by P1/L Friday

MANILA, Philippines — Big oil players Pilipinas Shell and Petron Corporation on Thursday announced they would slash prices of their petroleum products by P1 per liter. A radio report said the price reduction would take effect 12:01 a.m. Friday. As of posting time, Chevron Philippines (formerly Caltex) has yet to announce any price reduction. Last week, the Big Three oil players – Shell, Petron, and Chevron announced that price reduction would be impossible for December. Earlier in the day, independent oil firm Seaoil Philippines announced a P3 per liter rollback on its gasoline prices, and a P1 per liter cut on the prices of its diesel and kerosene products. The Seaoil rollback took effect 2 p.m. Thursday. Glenn Yu, Seaoil president, attributed the rollback to the continuing slide of oil prices in the international market. Asked why Seaoil is able to give away another price reduction despite statements from major oil firms that price adjustments is already impossible for December, Yu said their importation of refined petroleum products - contrary to crude oil imported by Petron and Shell - had been working to their advantage. Yu said they would study whether they could still implement further rollbacks before the year ends, saying they continue to coordinate with the Energy department in monitoring the movement of oil world prices. - Aie Balagtas See, GMANews.TV