The nation's two oil refiners yesterday hiked wholesale gasoline and diesel oil prices by NT$1.5 per liter, citing lingering high crude oil prices, according to company statements released yesterday.
September West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil futures slipped US$0.49 to US$61.08 a barrel in electronic trade yesterday, after hitting a record high of US$62.30 a barrel in the previous session, triggered by the death of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter on Monday.
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (
PHOTO: LIAO CHENG HUI, TAIPEI TIMES
After the increase, Formosa's wholesale gasoline and diesel oil prices are on average 7.39 percent higher than its previous rates, while gas stations buying from CPC need to pay an average of 7.64 percent more.
Formosa also hiked the price of low-sulfur fuel by NT$600 per kiloliter, and CPC raised the prices of consumer-use and industrial-use liquefied petroleum gas by NT$0.5 per kilogram, starting today.
"The range of the hike is still low, considering prices of WTI crude oil have rocketed by 12.72 percent since Mar. 11, Formosa's last price adjustment, as of Monday," Formosa said in the statement.
CPC chairman Kuo Chin-tsai (
Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (
The adjustment is reasonable, given that average crude oil prices over the past week have reached US$60.09 per barrel, Ho said. Furthermore, should wholesale prices remain unchanged, CPC would see its deficit widen, after reporting a net loss of NT$800 million last month, she said.
But Shen Chung-hua (
"It's inevitable that transportation costs will rise, consumer prices will go up, interest rates will be boosted and the nation's economic growth will decrease, affecting Taiwan's third-quarter GDP performance," Shen said.
Vice Premier Wu Rong-i (
The higher oil prices will place greater pressure on the government to attain its GDP growth target but are not likely to trigger inflation concerns at the moment, said Chu Yun-peng (
Taiwan's consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.84 percent year-on-year during the first half of the year.
"There won't be too much impact on the index if the oil prices are only raised within a small range," Chu said.
But from a long-term point of view, global crude oil prices will follow an upward trend considering dwindling oil output, while the death of Saudi Arabia's ruler, King Fahd, is not expected to affect the oil market, he said.
"If oil prices continue to soar due to shrinking supply, I believe oil refiners will have a second wave of price increases soon," Chu added.
Oil futures remain near record level
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