Energy sector says oil exchange no guarantee of lower prices.

For lack of a better alternative to prevent fuel prices from further rising, the Department of Energy (DoE) and oil firms yesterday pleaded for sobriety and asked the public and lawmakers to temporarily bear the very high prices of oil products.

For one, the frequent adjustments based on the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) being considered by oil companies will not be appropriate at this point as refined products reflected in MOPS are also displaying unstable prices. On the other hand, creating a National Oil Exchange Corp. (NOEC) will not guarantee lower prices which will still be dictated by market forces, they said.

Instead, Energy Undersecretary Cyril del …