Domestic gasoline and diesel prices will increase by NT$0.3 and NT$0.5 per liter respectively today, state-owned oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and its privately owned rival, Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), announced yesterday.
CPC sets its prices by using energy information provider Platts’ reports on average petroleum prices in Dubai and for Brent crude, with a 70 percent and 30 percent allocation respectively.
Using this week’s benchmark of US$68.80 per barrel, compared to last week’s US$70.41 per barrel, CPC said that gasoline and diesel prices should have dropped by NT$0.3 and NT$0.4 respectively, but the oil giant is still absorbing previous losses.
After the adjustment, CPC’s price for a liter of 98-octane unleaded gasoline will be NT$30.5. The price of 95-octane unleaded gasoline will be NT$29, and 92-octane unleaded gasoline will cost NT$28.3 per liter. Diesel will be priced at NT$25.5 per liter.
Recently, CPC has faced media criticism for not adjusting prices in line with the global price of crude.
The Taiwan Petroleum Workers’ Union (TPWU, 臺灣石油工會) issued a statement on Thursday defending CPC’s recent decisions on prices and its labor force by recalling the government’s freeze on gas prices when the global crude oil price was at an all-time high last year, which led to an annual loss of NT$139.3 billion (US$4.27 billion) at the state-run enterprise last year.
TPWU chairman Wang Ming-huei (王明輝), who also works for CPC, said in the press release: “CPC still managed to increase its market share as well as increase gasoline distribution in 2008, demonstrating CPC workers’ added value and contribution to the company as well as society.”
CPC has vowed to offer the lowest oil prices in the Asia-Pacific region.
If CPC had followed South Korea’s pricing system, it would have achieved profits of NT$8.2 billion last year, while if it had followed Japan’s pricing system, the government-run company would have made a profit of NT$29.6 billion last year, Wang said.
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