Formosa Petrochemical announces fuel price cut for next week

Formosa Petrochemical Corp. (????), a privately owned fuel supplier, said Saturday it will lower its gasoline and diesel prices next week because of falling international crude oil prices.

With concerns over a supply glut in the global oil market pushing down crude prices over the past seven days, Formosa Petrochemical decided to cut gasoline and diesel prices by NT$0.2 (US$0.006) per liter next week.

Formosa Petrochemical had lowered its diesel price by NT$0.1 per liter, but left gasoline prices unchanged this past week.

West Texas Intermediate crude fell 4.2 percent in New York in the past seven days, the steepest weekly loss since mid-September, and Brent crude, the global benchmark, also dropped almost 4 percent amid rising fears over an oversupply, analysts said.

Such supply glut fears were the result of growing skepticism over an output cut agreement reached by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in September after Iraq, OPEC's second-biggest producer after Saudi Arabia, said it could not cut production, analysts said.

Russia's unclear stance on joining the production cut plan also made energy traders jittery and pushed down crude oil prices further, analysts added. Russia is one of the world's major oil producers outside of OPEC.

In addition, an American Petroleum Institute (API) report showed that crude oil supplies in the U.S. market soared 4.8 million barrels this week, putting even more pressure on crude prices, analysts said.

After the adjustment, fuel prices at Formosa Petrochemical gas stations islandwide will fall to NT$21.1 per liter for super diesel, NT$23.7 per liter for 92 octane unleaded, NT$25.2 per liter for 95 unleaded and NT$27.5 per liter for 98 unleaded.

The company's main competitor, state-owned CPC Corp., Taiwan (??), is expected to announce similar price adjustments at noon Sunday, with the cuts taking effect at midnight.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel