CPC to keep domestic gasoline, diesel prices steady

Resumen detallado

State-owned oil supplier CPC Corp., Taiwan, on Saturday announced it has decided to leave its domestic gasoline and diesel prices unchanged next week.

Taipei, Nov. 14 (CNA) State-owned oil supplier CPC Corp., Taiwan, on Saturday announced it has decided to leave its domestic gasoline and diesel prices unchanged next week.

The decision came as international crude oil prices continued to stay at high levels, although fuel prices moved lower this week in the wake of a global supply surplus.

It will be the ninth consecutive week that CPC has maintained its domestic fuel prices at the same level under the government's price stabilization measures. The oil supplier was already keeping prices at the pump artificially low to curb inflationary pressures.

In a statement, CPC said it will recommend retail prices for 92-, 95- and 98-octane unleaded gasoline stay at NT$31.2 (US$0.95), NT$32.7 and NT$34.7 per liter, respectively, from midnight Sunday through Nov. 22.

The recommended retail price of premium diesel will also remain at NT$29.9 per liter during the same period, it said.

This week, Brent futures, the global benchmark, fell about 2.5 percent.

Under CPC's floating fuel price mechanism, which tracks a weighted average of 70 percent Dubai crude and 30 percent Brent crude, the average international crude oil price fell from US$99.79 per barrel last week to US$90.61 per barrel this week, the company said.

However, a depreciating Taiwan dollar, which averaged NT$32.867 against the U.S. dollar this week, compared with NT$32.763 last week, offset the effects of lower crude prices to some extent.

After its decision to keep prices unchanged, CPC said it still expects to absorb losses of NT$2.3 per liter on gasoline sales and NT$3.7 per liter on diesel sales next week.

Inicio del artículo, extracto de Focus Taiwan (CNA). Para leer el resto, abra el artículo en el sitio del medio.