Monday, July 28, 2008

Singapore does it again: pump prices slashed 10 cent while 'Malaysia does Dallas'

Pump prices fell 10 cents on Monday morning - the biggest cut since August 2003.
This is the fifth price drop in the last 20 days, with Shell leading the way. This was followed by Caltex and Singapore Petroleum Company (SPC).
This brings 98-octane to $2.110 a litre, 95-octane to $2.036 per litre and 92-octane to $2.003 per litre. Ultra premium petrol like Shell's V-power is at $2.239 a litre and Caltex's Platinum is at $2.236 a litre - before discount. Diesel also fell by 10 cents to $1.863 per litre.
SPC revised its pump prices across the board at 10 am on Monday.
Prices have eased recently while concerns mount about demand for oil in the face of prolonged weakness in the US economy, the world?s biggest energy consumer, analysts said.
Oil prices broke through the US$100 (S$135) level at the start of the year and then rose to a series of record highs on concerns about supply, stoked in part by tensions between the West and Iran over that country?s nuclear programme.
Unrest in key African producer Nigeria was another factor, analysts said.
The price of oil could drop to between US$70 and US$80 a barrel if the US dollar strengthens and concerns over Iran are reduced, Opec chief Chakib Khelil said on Saturday.
And Datuk Sharir said over the weekend that it is not time for our country to review the oil price from subsidy point of view and that of the hike was done when oil price was at USD125. For heaven sake, we had had a 78sen hike which was the most drastic one time hike as compared to other countries. What subsidy is he talking about here? Is government subsidy for oil base on a fixed amount now? And with lower domestic consumption, we have a lot more oil to export now. Bigger export income plus lesser subsidy. It all add up to a enormous figure they have in their hands now. Where is these money going?

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