CPC's wholesale gasoline prices remain unchanged

State-run Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC, 中油) yesterday announced that prices of wholesale gasoline and diesel products will remain unchanged under its weekly floating rate mechanism.

In a statement posted on the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Web site, CPC said wholesale rates for its 92-octane unleaded gasoline and top-grade diesel oil should be cut by NT$0.0105 per liter, based on the price differences of benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude over the past week in New York trading.

As NT$0.1 is the minimum change the company has set for a price change, CPC said that it decided to leave rates for petroleum products unchanged for the week.

World oil prices rose further yesterday as traders focused on an upcoming meeting of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members in Qatar to discuss output.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery next month, climbed US$0.40 to US$60.34 per barrel in electronic deals before the official opening of the US market.

In London, Brent North Sea crude for December delivery gained US$0.51 to US$62.17 per barrel in electronic trading. Brent's contract for next month expired on Monday, priced at US$59.96.

Oil prices have rebounded strongly since Qatar's Energy Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said on Sunday that an extraordinary meeting of OPEC would be held in Doha tomorrow to discuss a reduction of one million barrels per day (bpd) in production to check the recent fall in the price of crude oil.