The country’s oil firms raised pump prices by P0.75 per liter for gasoline and P0.70 per liter for diesel and kerosene effective 6 a.m. Tuesday to reflect the movement of prices in the world market.
“Petron will implement the following price increases effective 6 a.m. on May 11: P0.75/li for gasoline; P0.70/li for diesel; and P0.70/li for kerosene. These reflect movements in the international oil market,” said Petron Corp., the country’s biggest oil firm said.
Aside from Petron, PTT Philippines, Seaoil Philippines, Cleanfuel, PetroGazz, and Chevron Philippines also increased pump prices.
Unioil Philippines announced over the weekend that oil prices will likely go by as much as P0.70 per liter this week, the fourth consecutive weekly oil price hike.
World oil prices have been going up amid optimism of a global economic recovery resulting from the eased restrictions in the US and Europe.
However, this has been tempered by the surge in cases in India.
On May 4, oil companies raised the price of gasoline by P0.20 per liter while both diesel and kerosene increased P0.35 per liter.
These resulted in year-to-date adjustments to stand at a total net increase of P7.80 per liter for gasoline, P6.05 per liter for diesel and P5.30 per liter for kerosene.
Data from the Department of Energy showed that total petroleum demand declined in 2020 to 22,581 million liters from 27,319 million liters in 2019 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Demand for gasoline dropped to 5,936 million liters in 2020 from 6,973 million liters in 2019. Similarly, diesel demand also declined to 9,786 million liters from 11,534 million liters year-on-year.
