Chinese Petroleum Corp cuts gasoline, diesel oil prices

State-run Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC, 中油) announced late last night that it would lower wholesale prices of gasoline and diesel oil by an average of 1.67 percent to reflect softening of global crude oil prices, effective today.

This was the company's first petroleum products price cut this year, after three hikes in the past few months raised prices a total of NT$4 per liter.

In a statement released on the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Web site, the company said it would reduce prices of gasoline by NT$0.5 per liter and those of diesel oil by NT$0.3 per liter.

After the price adjustments, the wholesale price for 98-octane unleaded gasoline will be NT$29.6, 95-octane unleaded gasoline will be NT$28.1, 92-octane unleaded gasoline will be NT$27.4 and top-grade diesel oil will be NT$24.2 per liter.

CPC's price cuts came a day after the Consumers' Foundation (消基會) urged the nation's two oil refiners to lower gasoline prices to reflect falling crude oil prices.

The foundation said that as both CPC and private Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) had cited soaring crude prices when hiking wholesale prices three times this year, they should also be prepared to drop their prices when international oil prices fall.

The price of New York's light sweet crude for delivery next month declined to around US$64 per barrel on Wednesday from an all-time high of US$77.23 per barrel on July 14.

In yesterday's statement, CPC said the prices of petroleum products in Taiwan were still far lower than those in neighboring Asian countries.