Staff writer, with CNA
CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) announced on Saturday that it would keep its domestic gasoline and diesel prices unchanged this week despite a spike in international crude oil prices last week.Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) yesterday said it would also maintain fuel prices at the same level this week.The move marked the end of a three-week streak of decreasing fuel prices at CPC and Formosa.
Crude oil prices climbed again last week amid renewed concerns about Middle East tensions, as Iran and the US launched new attacks and US President Donald Trump said negotiations for a peace agreement were over.International oil prices averaged US$69.89 per barrel last week, up from US$67.05 the previous week, according to CPC’s floating price mechanism, which is based on a weighting of 70 percent Dubai crude and 30 percent Brent crude.
A weaker New Taiwan dollar, which traded at NT$32.095 against the US dollar last week compared with NT$31.879 the previous week, contributed to the higher crude oil prices, CPC data showed.However, CPC said it would absorb losses of NT$3.7 per liter on sales of gasoline and NT$2.1 per liter on diesel to hold fuel prices steady this week, complying with the government’s stabilization measures to ease inflationary pressure.Retail gasoline prices this week would remain at NT$29.8 (US$0.93), NT$31.3 and NT $33.3 per liter for 92, 95, and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively at CPC and Formosa stations, while prices for premium diesel would stay steady at NT$28.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$28.6 at Formosa pumps, the companies said.
