Oil

CAIRO (AP) — The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) nudged its 2010 forecast for global oil demand slightly higher Tuesday, a week before it’s due to meet, but cautioned that the pace of the global recovery may affect consumer appetite for its chief export.

Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., the smaller of the two oil refineries in the country, posted a net income of P7.6 billion in the first nine months of the year, up 50 percent from P5 billion year-on-year, despite sharply lower sales.

MANILA, Philippines – Small oil players Eastern Petroleum Corp., Unioil Petroleum, Flying V, and Phoenix Petroleum Philippines fired the first volley of oil price hikes yesterday after the lifting on Monday of the government-imposed price cap on petroleum products.

The imbroglio over Malacañang’s attempt to put a cap on petroleum product prices may be over but the debate on how to handle the industry isn’t. Senators and congressmen will try to win brownie points as they advocate the repeal of the oil deregulation law. People who want this to happen don’t realize the implications…

MANILA, Philippines – There is no reason for fuel pump prices to increase with the scrapping of Executive Order 839 that had implemented a price cap on oil products in Luzon, officials pointed out.

Acting National Economic Development Authority (Neda) chief Augusto Santos has dismissed as baseless the claim made by his predecessor, Ralph Recto, that prices of petroleum products in the country are overpriced by at least P8.

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang will closely monitor oil firms and traders to check their compliance with the conditions set by President Arroyo last week in exchange for lifting price caps on petroleum products and other basic commodities effective tomorrow, officials said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – President Arroyo has ordered the lifting of the price freeze on petroleum products and basic commodities, effective Monday, after making oil firms and traders promise to recover their losses on a staggered basis, stabilize prices and supply of goods, and put in more investments and programs for the poor.

A government task force has recommended the lifting of the controversial Executive Order 839 to President Gloria Arroyo, acting Justice Sec. Agnes Devanadera announced on Thursday. Devanadera said that the recommendation came after the Joint Department of Energy-Department of Justice (DOE-DOJ) Task Force on Oil Deregulation received on Wednesday night the assessment report from the…

MANILA, Philippines – President Arroyo has instructed Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes to address the problems facing the oil industry and to avert any fuel shortage in the market.

MANILA, Philippines—Warning of food riots and a stagnating economy should a fuel shortage occur because oil firms were not importing new stocks, three senior senators on Tuesday urged President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to take over the oil industry.

PNOC ready to supply fuel if need arises Officials said Tuesday that they were considering lifting price controls on oil products after Energy Sec. Angelo Reyes warned that the typhoon-ravaged country could end up running out of fuel within weeks, if not days.

Why do gas prices in Cebu vary so much from other regions? That’s the question Cebu businessmen and the local government want oil companies to answer.

Oil firms have shown that they are willing to work with the government and have proposed different packages of relief for victims of recent calamities after protesting government’s freeze on fuel on oil prices, Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said yesterday.

Supply of imported fuel products would only last for two weeks as oil firms continued to take a hit from Malacañang’s grip on fuel prices, Energy Sec. Angelo Reyes said Monday. During an industry meeting, Reyes cited projections made by the Department of Energy (DOE) that the supply of imported petroleum finished products, which constitute…

MANILA, Philippines – Petron Corp., the country’s largest oil refining and marketing company, yesterday urged the government to examine its books to put an end to speculation that it is overpricing.

SHELL has petitioned a Makati court to lift a presidential order freezing petroleum prices at their Oct. 15 levels, claiming it and the other oil firms have lost billions of pesos as a result of selling their products at a loss.

I warned, the first time I wrote about this, that EO 839 will create shortages because wholesalers and retailers will try to avert losses. The only way government can indulge in price setting is to subsidize the difference between actual cost and prescribed retail prices.

The President says that as a trained economist, she firmly believes in the sanctity of the free market. And yet she has become the most interventionist leader since the crony days of Marcos.

MANILA, Philippines – Oil industry sources disclosed yesterday that some oil companies are forced to close several service stations due to losses in revenues caused by the implementation of Executive Order 839 that mandated a freeze of pump prices in Luzon following the devastation of recent typhoons.

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang rejected yesterday calls from various business groups for the lifting of the Luzon-wide price freeze on petroleum products.

The oil price-cap protection that the government is imposing through Executive Order 839, which requires oil firms to temporarily peg prices of their products at their October 15 levels, and until the declaration of a state of calamity in Luzon is lifted, may not offer as much protection as we think.

EO harmful to foreign investments The Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines on Monday urged the government to lift Executive Order 839, which froze petroleum prices to their levels before October 15 when the Philippines was ravaged by back-to-back storms. In response to the devastation, the government recently declared a state of calamity over the…

MANILA, Philippines – Foreign and local businessmen demanded yesterday the termination of President Arroyo’s Executive Order 839, which places petroleum products under price control, saying the directive will adversely affect 80 percent of the country’s oil supply and create a black market.

MANILA, Philippines – President Arroyo has ordered all government offices to use only the E10 blend of gasoline for their vehicles as part of the state’s contribution to the promotion of bio-fuels.

I had a different topic planned but I’m going to have to talk about oil again despite the fact that I’ve done so several times before (columns of May 15, July 24 and Aug. 21 are a few). The government’s dangerous decision to take a populist approach and discard sound economics leaves me no option.

MAP chief warns: Price control ‘very dangerous’ The president of the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) said that the government order to freeze fuel prices may have a short-term benefit, but its consequence was “very dangerous” to the economy as it would create a black market. “Buyers will turn to informal sources and a…

I support the deregulation of industries. Less government intervention is the better for business. I was one of the countless oil company staff that worked on position papers and made one too many presentations to legislators and media to deliver the message that deregulation would benefit the consumers.

WHERE IS IT?: As the country reels from an emergency compounded by the manipulation of fuel prices, we ask what ever happened to the P300 million that was supposed to help small retailers entering the deregulated oil industry.

EXPECTING a demand spike because of a government-imposed freeze on pump prices, Shell, Chevron and Total yesterday said they would start rationing fuel to their gas stations based on their average volume of sales.