Taipei: Despite a spike in international crude oil prices, state-owned oil supplier CPC Corp., Taiwan, announced Saturday that it will keep its domestic gasoline and diesel prices steady next week.
According to Focus Taiwan, CPC stated that it will recommend retail prices remain 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. Additionally, the recommended retail price of premium diesel will stay at NT$29.3 per liter during the same period.
Next week will mark the sixth consecutive week that CPC has maintained domestic crude oil prices, despite international prices rising due to renewed hostilities between the United States and Iran. CPC's floating price mechanism, based on a weighted average of 70 percent Dubai and 30 percent Brent crude, indicated that the average international crude oil price increased 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 to NT$31.775 last week, helped CPC alleviate some crude oil purchasing cost pressures. With the decision to maintain prices, CPC expects 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 conflict in the Middle East began, as it has not fully passed higher crude oil costs onto consumers and businesses, in line with government price stabilization measures.