Oil prices may go up by as much as P3 per liter next week, industry sources said.
Based on the first four days of oil trading in the world market, diesel may go up by P2.80 to P3 per liter, and gasoline may go up by P1.60 to P1.80 per liter.
Other sources said kerosene may increase by more than P2.50 per liter.
Department of Energy director for the Oil Industry Management Bureau Rino Abad confirmed the possible oil price hike due to the movement of prices in the world oil market.
“This is just for the four-day trading. There is still one day (Friday) so we are hoping that the estimated big-time hike will go down,” Abad said.
Abad said world oil prices went up after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) continued to implement its oil output cut of one million barrels per day.
On the other hand, he said pump prices may soften next week to reflect the impact of the US Fed’s decision to hike interest rates.
The expected oil price hike next week will be the fourth consecutive week increase for diesel and kerosene and the third for gasoline.
On July 25, the oil firms hiked the price of gasoline by P1.35 per liter, diesel by P0.45 per liter, and P0.35 per liter for kerosene.
On July 18, the oil companies also increased the price of gasoline by P1.90 per liter, diesel by P2.10 per liter, and kerosene by P1.80 per liter.
Diesel went up by P0.75 per liter and kerosene by P0.50 per liter on July 11 but the price of gasoline was rolled back by P0.20 per liter.