CPC to leave domestic gasoline, diesel prices unchanged next week

Taipei, Sept. 19 (CNA) State-owned oil supplier CPC Corp., Taiwan, announced Saturday that it will leave its domestic gasoline and diesel prices unchanged next week despite higher crude oil purchasing costs.

In a statement, CPC Corp. said it will recommend that retail prices stay at NT$31.2 (US$0.98), NT$32.7 and NT$34.7 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline, respectively, from midnight Sunday through Sept. 27.

The recommended retail price of premium diesel will also remain at NT$29.9 per liter during the same period, CPC Corp. said.

The decision not to raise prices at the pump was made despite rising crude oil prices after Saudi Arabian pipelines were attacked, in an effort to curb local inflationary pressures and keep domestic fuel prices lower than in neighboring markets, CPC Corp. said.

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$115.61 per barrel last week to US$125.76 this week.

That increase, and a weaker Taiwan dollar, which averaged NT$31.827 against the U.S. dollar this week compared with NT$31.556 last week, pushed CPC Corp.'s purchase price for crude oil higher by 7.76 percent this week.

With retail fuel prices to remain steady, the company is expected to absorb a loss of NT$9.3 per liter on gasoline sales and NT$11.3 per liter on diesel sales next week.

CPC estimated that by Sunday it will have absorbed NT$21.92 billion in accumulated losses since the war in the Middle East started at the end of February by not fully passing on higher crude oil costs to consumers and businesses.

The company had already increased its gasoline prices by NT$0.7 per liter and diesel prices by NT$0.6 per liter for this week, citing a spike in crude oil prices.