CPC to leave domestic gasoline, diesel prices unchanged next week

Taipei, Sept. 5 (CNA) Despite a spike in international crude oil prices, state-owned oil supplier CPC Corp., Taiwan said Saturday that it will keep its domestic gasoline and diesel prices steady next week.

In a statement, CPC said it will recommend retail prices stay at NT$30.5 (US$0.96), NT$32.0 and NT$34.0 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline, respectively, from midnight Monday through Sept. 13.

The recommended retail price of premium diesel will also remain at NT$29.3 per liter during the same period, CPC said.

Next week will be the sixth consecutive week that CPC has maintained domestic crude oil prices, despite international crude oil prices moving higher in the wake of renewed hostilities between the United States and Iran.

CPC said its floating price mechanism, based on a weighted average of 70 percent Dubai and 30 percent Brent crude, showed that the average international crude oil price rose from US$91.56 per barrel last week to US$99.82 this week.

A stronger Taiwan dollar, which averaged NT$31.682 this week against the U.S. dollar, compared with NT$31.775 last week, however, helped CPC ease crude oil purchasing cost pressure to some extent.

After the decision, CPC is expected to absorb a loss of NT$4.1 per liter on gasoline sales and NT$5.5 per liter on diesel sales next week.

CPC estimated that by Sunday it will have absorbed NT$18.72 billion in accumulated losses since the war in the Middle East started, by not fully passing higher crude oil costs onto consumers and businesses, per government price stabilization measures.