Oct. 29--The country's two oil refiners claim that they stand to lose billions of pesos from the rollback on pump prices ordered by Malacanang in calamity areas. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), Petron Corp. reported that it would incur a net loss of about P1.5 billion in the fourth quarter alone because of the cap on pump prices.

Meanwhile, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. Country Chairman Ed Chua said that the company may suffer more than P1 billion a month from the price ceiling imposed by the Palace.

On October 23, President Gloria Arroyo issued Executive Order 839 directing oil companies to maintain retail prices of petroleum products in Luzon at pre-calamity levels.

Although they eventually complied, oil firms balked as they warned that the price cap would have a negative impact on local fuel supply and on the country's investment climate given the industry's deregulated environment.

To help avert a shortage caused by fears that commercial and industrial customers' may shift their purchases to retail outlets, Shell earlier announced that it would be allocating its fuel supply.

Other oil firms, on the other hand, have also started contemplating about doing the same or perhaps holding back their import shipments altogether to mitigate the significant losses that they claim they would suffer.

Against the grain

Not all firms were apparently subscribing to that argument.

Oil minnow Unioil Petroleum Philippines Inc. announced on Wednesday it was willing to provide petroleum products to new oil players with small retail stations across the country that could not get enough supply at fair prices from dealers.

"We want to help these new players by providing them enough supply, especially those who are suffering from losses and cannot continue with their businesses," Unioil General Manager Chito Medina-Cue Jr. said.

Unioil was the first local oil player to heed the President's call by cutting its prices ahead of other oil players.

In compliance with the executive order, other oil firms also rolled back the prices of diesel by P2 per liter, unleaded premium gasoline by P1.25 per liter, regular gasoline by P0.85 per liter and kerosene by P1.50 per liter.

Future price hikes, especially with international oil prices rising, would also be held back until the President lifts the declaration of the state of calamity in Luzon.

Still overpriced

Despite the cap, the multisectoral group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) argued that pump prices were still overpriced by about P5.48 a liter.