Taipei, April 21 (CNA) Formosa Petrochemical Corp., a private fuel supplier, said Saturday that it has decided to raise its domestic gasoline and diesel prices for next week after international crude oil prices continued to rise this week.
Amid reduced fears over a global supply glut caused by a drop in crude inventories in the U.S. market, as well as lingering concerns over geopolitics in the Middle East, international crude oil prices rose to hit a more-than three-year high this week, market analysts said.
As a result, Formosa Petrochemical announced that it will raise its gasoline and diesel prices by NT$0.5 (US$0.017) per liter next week, effective from 1 a.m. Monday.
It is the second consecutive week in which the fuel supplier will have hiked its prices after a NT$0.6 hike per liter this week.
After the latest price adjustments, prices at Formosa Petrochemical gas stations island wide will rise to NT$25.4 per liter for super diesel, NT$27.8 per liter for 92 octane unleaded, NT$29.2 per liter for 95 unleaded, and NT$31.3 per liter for 98 unleaded, the company said.
Dealers in the global energy market stayed upbeat about the movement of crude prices after the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported earlier this week that crude inventories in the U.S. market fell by 1.1 million barrels in the week to April 13.
Moreover, gasoline stockpiles also dropped by 3 million barrels and distillate fuels, including diesel, decreased by 3.1 million barrels in the week as well, the EIA said.
Analysts said tension in the Middle East remained in place after air strikes on Syria by the United States, the United Kingdom and France last week, which prompted energy traders to speculate an interruption in global oil supplies.
In addition, optimism has been growing that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC producers will agree to extend the current output reduction accord beyond the end of 2018. Such an upbeat mood continued to push up crude prices, analysts said.
Under such circumstances, state-owned CPC Corp. is likely to announce similar price adjustments at noon Sunday that will take effect 12 hours later.
CPC calculates its weekly fuel prices based on a weighted oil price formula made up of 70 percent Dubai crude and 30 percent Brent crude.
Based on the latest fluctuations in international crude oil prices, CPC's average price for crude oil was calculated at US$68.41 per barrel as of Thursday, up US$1.80 from a week earlier, according to its website.
(By Tien Yu-pin and Frances Huang)
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