Taipei: State-owned oil company CPC Corp., Taiwan, has announced its decision to maintain domestic gasoline and diesel prices at their current levels for the seventh consecutive week. This decision comes amidst rising international crude oil prices, driven by ongoing tensions in the Middle East.
According to Focus Taiwan, CPC has opted to keep gasoline and diesel prices unchanged in an effort to control inflation and adhere to the government’s pricing mechanism, which aims to keep fuel prices lower than those in neighboring markets. In a statement on Saturday, CPC recommended 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 Monday through May 24. The price for premium diesel will also stay at NT$31.0 per liter.
At these prices, CPC reported it would incur losses of NT$3.3 per liter on gasoline sales and NT$5.0 per liter on diesel sales for the coming week. These losses are greater than those absorbed in th
e previous week due to the continued rise in crude oil prices. However, the company noted that a stronger Taiwan dollar has mitigated some of the financial pressure from the higher crude prices.
CPC’s pricing mechanism, which is based on a weighting of 70 percent Dubai crude and 30 percent Brent crude, saw the average international oil price increase to US$106.26 per barrel this week, up from US$102.97 the previous week. The average exchange rate for the Taiwan dollar against the U.S. dollar was NT$31.492 this week, slightly stronger than last week’s rate of NT$31.508.
Since the outbreak of conflict involving the United States and Israel against Iran at the end of February, CPC estimates it will have absorbed NT$14.82 billion in losses by Sunday.