State-controlled PTT, which regularly sells its petrol for less than its private-sector competition, has kept the price of petrol at its service stations lower  since the beginning of the year.

 Chaivat Churitti, PTT vice president, who is responsible for the company's Oil Business Group, said no decision would be made during the next few days on whether to change the price of fuel at PTT petrol stations.

The company will continue to monitor world oil prices closely before acting, he added.

Under current marketing margins, PTT received around an 80-satang-a-litre profit, which, he said, was sufficient.

As for diesel, Chaivat insisted the company would keep the retail price as low as possible in an attempt to not harm the country's economy.

He declined to speculate whether the diesel price would rise higher than Bt28 a litre.

He  said he hoped that the oil prices would fall after Middle Eastern governments averred that the price of Dubai crude would be quoted at no more than Bt1,900-2,100 a barrel.

He added that in the fourth quarter, PTT would decide whether to eliminate octane-95 petrol completely and replace it with 95-octane gasohol.

"If all the ethanol plants, including four new plants being developed, can produce ethanol commercially, PTT will have sufficient supplies to produce gasohol and replace petrol entirely," said Chaivat.

The country has been forced to import ethanol from Brazil to make up for domestic shortfalls due to a lack of ethanol plants. Chaivat said there were reserves of 40 million litres of ethanol, which would be available throughout the year.

When it recently ended its gasohol campaign to monitor the efficiency of its ethanol supplies, PTT found its sales of the fuel stabilised at around 40 million litres a month.

"When we are confident in the reliability of our ethanol supplies, PTT will resume the promotion of gasohol," said Chaivat.

Gasohol sold in Thailand has a one-to-10 ratio of ethanol to petrol.