LPG prices may go up in December, fuel price rollbacks may continue – DOE

Metro Manila, Philippines— The prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) products may increase by December, but the price cuts in other fuel products could continue, the Department of Energy (DOE) said.

DOE Oil Industry Management Bureau director Rino Abad said the possible price hike in LPG products is due to the expected global demand.

“Itong November, December, ito po yung pressure months dahil dito po ang buildup ng inventory dahil gumagamit ang northern hemisphere countries ng LPG for heating requirements sa winter period,” Abad told CNN Philippines in an interview. “Ito ay gagamitin dire-diretso, January, February, March ng next year, so inaasahan natin na tataas.”

[Translation: The months of November and December are considered as the pressure months because inventories pile up as northern hemisphere countries use LPG for heating requirements during the winter period. They will use it continuously from January to March next year, so we are expecting the prices to increase.]

As of November, prices of LPG products went up by ₱3.50 per kilogram while prices of auto LPG rose by ₱1.95 to ₱1.96 per liter.

Despite the possible increase in LPG products, the prices of gasoline and diesel may continue to decline. However, the continuous rollback may be spoiled by the plan of OPEC+ to further slash oil production.

“Mataas ang possibility na pataas sa LPG ang price, pero posible talagang pababa dun sa [fuel] products except lang kung ang sama na naman ng desisyon ng OPEC+,” said Abad. “When I say masama, baka yung 2 million na target nilang pagbabawas ngayong month ng November ay dagdagan pa nila.”

[Translation: The possibility of a price increase in LPG products is high, but the price of fuel products is on a possible downward trend, unless the OPEC+ makes a bad decision. That’s if it decides to further reduce output in November from its planned daily production cut of 2 million barrels daily.]

OPEC+ in October said it will slash oil production by 2 million barrels per day, the biggest cut since the start of the pandemic, beginning in November.

According to Unioil Petroleum Philippines, fuel firms are expected to drop per-liter prices of diesel by ₱3.80 to ₱4.00 and gasoline by ₱1.10 to ₱1.20 next week.