Fill up your tank: Fuel firms are dropping gasoline prices by P5.45, diesel by P11.45 on March 22
Now is the ideal time to fill up your tank, as fuel firms are finally cutting the per-liter prices of gasoline and diesel for the first time this year.
In separate advisories released on Monday, March 21, petrol suppliers announced that prices will be slashed by P5.45 per liter for gasoline and P11.45 per liter for diesel at 6 a.m. on March 22.
The rollback will be implemented by leading fuel companies Caltex and Petron, along with Cleanfuel, Flying V, Petro Gazz, Phoenix, Total, and Unioil.
At the same time, kerosene prices will fall to P8.55 per liter in Caltex, Flying V, and Unioil.
In an interview with CNN Philippines’ New Day on March 16, the Department of Energy's Oil Industry Management Bureau Director Rino Abad said that the COVID-19 surge in China and Ukraine’s concession to join NATO has caused the downward trend of fuel prices.
"The price of crude oil is actually very volatile, but it kept on increasing because of the sustained pronouncement from UK, US, European Union (on) sanctions against Russia," Abad stated.
"But recently there was a statement from Ukrainian President (Volodymyr Zelenskyy) that they're not interested anymore in joining NATO, (prompting) Russia to respond that they're now willing to sit down with Ukraine and US for talks," he said.
"(This was) coupled with recent surges of COVID-19 in Singapore, but notable in China which imposed a massive lockdown,” Abad continued. “Those are the two main (drivers) this week in the recent report that immediately provided us reasons why the crude oil prices immediately went down from a day's transaction, last week versus yesterday morning.”
In addition, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said the per-barrel price of oil in Dubai has dropped from $122.61 to $104.79 in the past two weeks.
However, DOE Assistant Secretary Gerardo Erguiza noted that although the rollback would benefit consumers, fuel prices are still relatively unstable.
“Hopefully po. We cannot really speculate at this point but the conditions around are getting better. Medyo lumuluwag yata ang supply,’ he told GMA News’ Unang Balita today, March 21.
“But at the end of the day, alam po natin na napaka-volatile ng situation. Ngayon medyo nakatulong din,” he added.
Since the beginning of 2022, prices of fuel have increased to a net of P20.35 per liter, diesel at P30.65 per liter, and kerosene at P24.90 per liter.