MANILA — Motorists and consumers may see another round of fuel price rollbacks in the coming week as global oil benchmarks continue to ease, the Department of Energy (DOE) said.

In a report, Department of Energy Undersecretary Alessandro Sales said the agency is monitoring downward movements in the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), which is used as a key pricing reference for petroleum products in the region.

“As of today, prices over the past two days have continued to decline. Even with the pronouncement of President Donald Trump that they would station warships at the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, the market does not appear to be pricing that in, so MOPS has continued to go down,” Sales said in a virtual briefing.

“If this market reaction continues, we could see more stable prices or even another rollback,” he added.

However, Energy Secretary Sharon Garin cautioned that global oil markets remain highly uncertain due to ongoing tensions in the Middle East.

She said the DOE will need to observe price movements for several more days before making a firm forecast.

“We need five days to monitor, but hopefully prices won’t go up,” Garin said.

The DOE noted that fuel retailers had already implemented the first round of price rollbacks since the outbreak of the US-Israel-Iran conflict in late February.

The recent adjustments followed reports of a temporary ceasefire agreement involving the United States and Iran, which was conditioned on Tehran pausing its blockade of oil and gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

Over the weekend, however, US President Donald Trump said the US Navy would move to blockade the strait after talks with Tehran reportedly failed to produce a deal to end the conflict.