Formosa Petrochemical to cut fuel prices next week

Taipei--Formosa Petrochemical Corp. (????), a privately owned fuel supplier, said Saturday that it will lower its domestic gasoline and diesel prices next week as international crude oil prices continued to drop this week.

Gasoline and diesel prices will be reduced by NT$0.5 (US$0.016) per liter, effective 1 a.m. Monday, the company said.

The decision followed a NT$0.5 cut per liter in gasoline prices and a NT$0.6 reduction per liter in diesel prices this week by Formosa Petrochemical.

After the latest adjustments, prices at Formosa Petrochemical gas stations islandwide will fall to NT$21.0 per liter for super diesel, NT$23.7 per liter for 92 octane unleaded, NT$25.1 per liter for 95 unleaded and NT$27.2 per liter for 98 unleaded.

State-owned CPC Corp., Taiwan (??), the main competitor of Formosa Petrochemical, is expected to announce a similar price adjustment on Sunday, with the hike taking effect at midnight.

With the drop in international crude oil prices, CPC has calculated the average price of crude oil at US$50.35 per barrel this week, down from NT$52.37 per barrel a week earlier, according to its website.

Crude oil production in the U.S. market in the week ending April 21 rose by 13,000 per barrel a day to 9.3 million barrels, close to the high in August 2015, according to the latest statistics from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

In addition, Libya's decision to resume production in its major oil field also raised concerns about a global oversupply, causing jitters among energy trades and a drop in crude oil prices, market analysts said.

Crude oil prices fell more than 2 percent Thursday after Libya reopened its largest oil field earlier in the week as protests that blocked pipelines there ended.

Worry over a possible increase in output by Russia also affected the global oil market, analysts said. Energy traders are worried that Russia will raise output after a deal between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC countries to cut production expires in June, according to analysts.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel