CPC to leave domestic gasoline, diesel prices unchanged next week

Taipei, June 6 (CNA) State-owned oil supplier CPC Corp., Taiwan announced on Saturday that it has decided to leave domestic gasoline and diesel prices unchanged next week to ease the impact of high international crude oil prices amid tensions in the Middle East.

In a statement, the company said it would recommend that retail prices remain at NT$32.4 (US$1.03), NT$33.9 and NT$35.9 per liter for 92, 95, and 98-octane unleaded gasoline, respectively, from midnight on Monday through June 14.

The recommended price for premium diesel will stay at NT$31.0 per liter during the same period, CPC added.

The decision will result in the company absorbing NT$1.0 per liter in losses for gasoline sales and NT$2.4 per liter in losses for diesel sales next week, CPC said.

Under CPC's floating price mechanism, which is based on a weighting of 70 percent Dubai crude and 30 percent Brent crude, the average international oil price fell to US$95.71 per barrel this week, down from US$99.36 last week.

It was the 10th consecutive week CPC has maintained domestic gasoline and diesel prices at the same level to counter inflationary pressure under the government's price stabilization mechanism.

On Friday, government statistics showed the local consumer price index rose 2.20 percent from a year earlier in May, marking the first time local inflation breached the central bank's 2 percent target since April 2025, when CPI grew 2.03 percent, largely due to a spike in crude oil prices.

Since the launch of the U.S.-Israel war against Iran on Feb. 28, CPC estimates it will have absorbed NT$17.27 billion in losses as of Sunday.

The company emphasized that it will continue to follow the government's instructions to stabilize fuel prices and keep domestic fuel prices lower than in the neighboring markets of Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore, in a bid to mitigate financial pressure on both consumers and businesses.