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CPC, Formosa to lift prices to adjust for fuel supply cost

The state-run Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC, 中油), the nation's largest oil refiner, and its smaller rival Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday that they would increase prices of wholesale gasoline and diesel products by NT$0.6 and NT$1 per liter respectively, effective at midnight today.

As soaring crude oil costs threaten the two refiners annual profits, both CPC and Formosa Plastics said they will keep monitoring international crude oil prices and will adjust them accordingly.

CPC also is increasing the wholesale price of fuel oil by NT$200 per kiloliter, while Formosa Plastics will increase fuel oil prices by NT$250 per kiloliter.

Higher crude oil prices have cost the CPC NT$2 billion last month alone for the purchase of 18 million barrels of crude oil. That expense will be reflected in the company's financial report for this month, CPC president Chen Bao-lang (陳寶郎) told the Taipei Times earlier this month.

CPC yesterday said the price increase, its fifth this year, mainly reflects rising international oil prices and was based on a crude price of over US$44 per barrel.

"The increases resulted from soaring oil prices due to output reduction from Russian oil giant Yukos pushing crude oil prices to US$44.106 per barrel on the US benchmark grade West Texas Intermediate," a company statement said.

The new rates are still NT$2.5 to NT$3.8 per liter lower than prices in neighboring Asian countries, CPC said.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday, prices of light sweet crude for October delivery lost US$0.10 to trade at US$46.25 in pre-opening electronic deals.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs' Bureau of Energy said earlier this month that reasonable prices for West Texas Intermediate crude oil should fall between US$27 and US$35 a barrel in the future.
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