THE Department of Energy (DoE) said the public should manage its expectations after a fuel price rollback, with cold weather likely to put pressure on supply soon.
“You know (prices are) volatile and we have to always be ready. We are already moving towards the winter months; normally, prices will increase then, but let us hope that the external factors like Ukraine, and Russia will stabilize,” Energy Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla told reporters on Wednesday.
“We have to manage our expectations that this will continuously go down because there are a lot of external factors involved,” he said.
The consecutive weeks of increases ended on Tuesday as oil firms announced a slight rollback in pump prices this week.
On Monday, oil companies announced that prices will fall P0.20 liter for both gasoline and diesel and a decline of P0.50 for kerosene.
The rollback ended the streak of rising diesel and kerosene prices at 11 weeks. Gasoline had also risen 10 straight weeks.
Between the second week of July and the third week of September, pump prices rose P11.85 per liter for gasoline, P17.30 per liter for diesel, and P15.94 per liter for kerosene.
“Baka akyat-baba ’yung presyo dahil sa external factors. (Prices are volatile due to external factors) So we must continue to (resist taking) unnecessary trips; let us use mass transport systems para maka-tipid (in order to save),” Mr. Lotilla said. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera
