Consistent with its statutory mandate to protect the public, the Department of Energy (DOE), through the Oil Industry Management Bureau, is tasked to closely monitor and evaluate actual oil price movements, both in the international and domestic markets to prevent unreasonable adjustments and abuses. However, the lack of transparency in the current practice of the DOE in using the rather “confidential” Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) data as the basis of retail prices of oil in the country, has even left stakeholders less equipped in analyzing the cost structure of domestic pump prices. This more than ever highlights the need for the DOE to at least reveal the indicative percentage share of each cost component of domestic pump prices so that third party verification is possible for the sake of transparency and consumer protection, rather than reasoning out that prices of domestic petroleum products tend to be sticky downward.>>read complete document
