Kingdom petrol price spike looms

Retail petrol prices in the Kingdom continued to fall on Monday amid an increase in crude oil prices in the international market.

This follows the renewal of a pact between two top oil producers to cap output and the temporary trade cease fire between the US and China.

A Ministry of Commerce statement released on Monday said petrol prices fell by 200 riel to 3,450 riel per litre, while diesel dropped 300 riel per litre to 3,500 riel for the period between December 1 and 15.

The ministry said the drop came as part of a growing trend of falling oil prices in regional and international markets.

Normally, the ministry evaluates retail petrol and diesel prices once every two weeks in line with market price fluctuations.

However, oil prices soared more than five per cent on Monday with West Texas Intermediate rising $2.82 to $53.75 and Brent up $2.98 at $62.44.

The crude price spike comes after Russia and Saudi Arabia renewed a pact to cap output, while the US agreed to halt raising tariffs on Chinese imports, stalling a trade row that many feared could hit demand for the commodity.

Bin Many Mialia, deputy managing director of Commercial Marketing and Corporate Affairs at PTT (Cambodia) Ltd, said the price of petrol in Cambodia will not rise immediately due to the ministry setting oil prices once every two weeks, also factoring in the price it set for the previous two-week period in its calculations.

“If international prices rise in the next 15 days, [the price] does not reflect the [local retail] price for the next 15 days. [The ministry] takes the price of the last 15 days of last month to calculate the current price,” he said.

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