The country’s oil firms raised the price of diesel and kerosene for the sixth consecutive week effective 6 a.m. Tuesday by P1.50 per liter and P2.50 per liter, respectively.
The oil firms also raised the price of gasoline for the fifth consecutive week by P1.90 per liter to reflect the movement of prices in the world oil market.
Phoenix Petroleum Philippines announced the price hikes in its advisory, followed by Jetti Petroleum, Cleanfuel, Chevron Philippines, and PetroGazz.
Department of Energy director for the oil industry management bureau Rodela Romero said the high pump prices were due to “Saudi’s production cut, US government agency projected a rosier outlook on the economy and Ukraine’s threat to retaliate if Russia continues to block Ukrainian ports.
These offset concerns about slow demand from China.”
On August 8, the oil companies implemented an increase of P0.50 per liter for gasoline, P4 per liter for diesel, and P2.75 per liter for kerosene.
These price adjustments resulted in a year-to-date net increase of P11.50 per liter for gasoline, P7.10 per liter for diesel, and P2.60 per liter, respectively.
The higher oil prices followed last week’s decline in profits by Petron Corp. and Shell Pilipinas Corp. for the first half due to rising financing costs and declining global oil prices.
Petron’s net income fell 20 percent in the first half of 2023 to P6.14 billion from P7.7 billion in the same period last year even as sales volume went up 13 percent to 57.61 million barrels from 51.41 million barrels sold a year ago.
Meanwhile, SPC posted a net income of P123 million in the first half of 2023, down from P7.8 billion it earned in the same period last year due to decreasing oil prices and tripling of interest rates.