CPC to leave domestic gasoline, diesel prices unchanged next week

Taipei, July 18 (CNA) Despite a spike in international crude oil prices, state-owned oil supplier CPC Corp., Taiwan, announced on Saturday that it will leave domestic gasoline and diesel prices unchanged next week to ease local inflationary pressure.

This marked the second consecutive week that CPC maintained its domestic fuel prices at the same levels when the United States and Iran launched new waves of attacks against each other, pushing up crude prices worldwide.

After the decision, CPC said in a statement that it would recommend retail prices stay at NT$29.8, NT$31.3 and NT$33.3 per liter for 92, 95, and 98-octane unleaded gasoline, respectively, from midnight on Monday through July 26.

The recommended price for premium diesel will also stay at NT$28.8 per liter during the same period, 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 rose to US$78.82 per barrel this week, up from US$69.89 last week.

A weaker Taiwan dollar, which averaged NT$32.214 against the U.S. dollar this week, compared with NT$32.095 last week, added upward pressure to CPC's oil purchasing costs, according to the company.

The move to leave domestic fuel prices unchanged is expected to result in CPC shouldering a loss of NT$0.3 per liter from gasoline sales, and a loss of NT$1.1 per liter from diesel sales.

Since the war in the Middle East broke out at the end of February, CPC estimates it will have absorbed NT$15.56 billion in losses as of Sunday, by not reflecting the full increase of international crude oil costs in local fuel prices.