Oil price rollbacks not good for OFWs, Energy exec says

While motorists can rejoice over a series of oil price rollbacks, such downtrend in fuel prices could take its toll on overseas Filipinos workers (OFWs) employed in the oil industry, according to an Energy official.

In a report on GMA News TV's “State of the Nation with Jessica Soho (SONA)” Monday night, Energy Undersecretary Zenaida Monsada said low demand for petroleum products in the world market may result in oil-producing firms cutting down operations, like what happened during the global financial crisis.

“Kapag tuloy-tuloy ang rollback, maalala natin nung 2008 and 2009, ang daming nawalan ng trabaho sa mga OFWs natin, kasi wala na yung mga projects nila, kasi hindi maganda yung presyo eh,” Monsada said.

On Tuesday, oil companies Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation, Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc., Petron Corporation, Seaoil, PTT Philippines and Flying V rolled back the price of gasoline and diesel at P0.90 per liter and kerosene at P1.05 per liter.

The pump prices have been going down almost every week for the last two months, following the decrease in the demand of growth-crunched global economies.

Based on the record of the Department of Energy (DOE) from January to date, a total of P7.24 per liter has been cut off in the price of gasoline while P9.03 per liter has been slashed in the price of diesel.

In the world market, a total of $30 per barrel has been cut off in the price of petroleum since January, the SONA report said.

Monsada said they will closely monitor the meeting to be held by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Thursday as the group would likely announce whether to cut down oil production in the coming months. —Elizabeth Marcelo/KBK, GMA News

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