SINGAPORE - Fuel pump operators have shaved petrol prices by up to three cents a litre and diesel by up to four cents as crude oil prices continued to slide.
According to Fuel Kaki, a pump price tracker set up by the Consumers Association of Singapore, the five major pump operators took turns to reduce posted rates this week, led by Esso, on Wednesday.
This was after five-cent increases by Caltex and Shell two weeks ago were not followed by Esso, Sinopec or SPC, forcing the two to revert to their previous rates.
With the latest reductions, diesel is $2.70 a litre at Caltex, Esso and Shell, and $2.69 at SPC and Chinese-owned Sinopec.
A litre of 92-octane petrol is $2.82 at Caltex, Esso and SPC – the only three which offer the grade.
The popular 95-octane petrol is $2.86 at SPC, and $2.87 elsewhere.
The regular 98-octane petrol is $3.36 at Shell and $3.34 elsewhere, while the so-called premium 98-octane is $3.53 at Caltex, $3.47 at Sinopec and $3.36 at Shell, which occasionally prices this fuel at the same level as its regular 98-octane.
Compared with the recent peaks in mid-September, where a litre of 95-octane fuel breached $3, posted pump prices have fallen by around 4 per cent to 5 per cent.
The price cuts are on the back of lower oil prices.
The benchmark Brent crude hovered at US$80.45 a barrel in early trade on Friday, down by about US$10 a barrel, or 10 per cent, from two weeks ago.
Reuters reported that rising interest rates and a worsening outlook for the global economy were depressing oil consumption.
It added that manufacturers in the United States, Europe and China all reported worse business conditions in October, undoing some of the gradual improvement between June and September.
The economic concerns have overshadowed worries about how the Hamas-Israel conflict might spread and disrupt oil production in the Middle East.
The oil market was now at its weakest since late June, before Saudi Arabia and other major oil-producing countries cut production by more than one million barrels a day, said Reuters.
After discounts, the 92-octane fuel averages $2.36 at Caltex, $2.38 at Esso and $2.40 at SPC. For 95-octane, average discounted prices range from $2.25 at Sinopec – which has only three stations – to $2.45 at Shell.
Average discounted prices for the regular 98-octane petrol range from $2.63 at Sinopec to $2.85 at Shell.
