CPC lowers gasoline, diesel prices

State-run Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC, 中油) announced yesterday that it would lower wholesale prices of gasoline and diesel oil products by NT$0.2 per liter to reflect softening global crude oil prices, effective today.

In a statement posted on the Web site of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, CPC said the price cuts for wholesale gasoline and diesel products reflect a 1.48 percent decline in the prices of benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude over the past week in New York trade.

This was the company's first petroleum product price adjustment after saying last month that it would start adopting a weekly floating rate based on fluctuations in the price of WTI oil.

After the price adjustments, the wholesale price for 98-octane unleaded gasoline will be NT$28.5, 95-octane unleaded gasoline will be NT$27.0, 92-octane unleaded gasoline will be NT$26.3 and top-grade diesel oil will be NT$23.1 per liter.

The company left fuel prices unchanged last week -- the first week the new pricing system was implemented -- after it said WTI crude climbed 0.4 percent over the previous week, which translated into gains of less than NT$0.1 a liter.

NT$0.1 is the minimum change the company has set for a price change.

CPC's new pricing system was adopted after the company reported a loss of NT$25.4 billion (US$770.68 million) in the first eight months of the year due to soaring global oil prices.

The new pricing system will be in effect until the end of this year, according to CPC.

CPC chairman Pan Wenent (潘文炎) said on Sept. 27 that the company was expected to narrow its loss to NT$10 billion this year as oil prices have fallen to US$60 per barrel from a peak of US$77.23 on July 24.