CPC, Formosa to keep retail fuel prices unchanged

CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) on Saturday announced that it would keep retail gasoline and diesel prices unchanged this week, while Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) yesterday said it would maintain its fuel prices at the same levels despite a spike in international crude oil prices.

The decisions mark the fourth consecutive week that CPC and Formosa have kept domestic fuel prices unchanged, although crude oil prices moved higher last week after Iran vowed a “devastating” response to US threats to impose tighter economic sanctions.

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 to US$93.01 last week from US$89.84 per barrel the previous week.

However, a stronger New Taiwan dollar, which averaged NT$31.901 against the US dollar last week, compared with NT$32.194 a week earlier, helped moderate the financial pressure from higher crude oil purchasing costs, CPC said.

Retail gasoline prices this week would remain at NT$30.5, NT$32 and NT$34 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively at CPC and Formosa stations, while prices of premium diesel would stay at NT$29.3 per liter at CPC stations and NT$29.1 per liter at Formosa pumps, the companies said.