Consumers are facing another round of oil price hike next week of as much as P1.70 per liter to reflect the continuing volatility in the world oil market.
Industry sources said that based on the four-day trading of the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), the pricing benchmark used by oil importers, diesel pump prices may go up by P1.50 to P1.70 per liter, kerosene by P1.05 to P1.15 per liter and gasoline by P0.75 to P0.95 per liter.
Department of Energy director for the oil industry management bureau Rodela Romero said the price uptrend was supported by several developments.
These include the drone attacks and fires to oil facilities of Russia designed to disrupt supply lines and logistics and the proposal to extend the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) production cut of 2.2 million barrels per day until the first quarter of 2024.
World oil prices were also impacted by the US Federal Reserve’s plans to reduce interest rates to help boost economic growth and to help create demand for commodities like crude oil and the economic stimulus package to boost China’s economy.
“Today’s (Friday’s) MOPS trading will further increase or decrease the said price adjustments for next week,” Romero said.
The oil companies raised the price of gasoline, diesel and kerosene by P2.80 per liter, P1.30 per liter and P0.45 per liter, respectively on January 30.
The total adjustment of gasoline and diesel stands at a net increase of P4.40 per liter and P2.90 per liter, respectively.
Kerosene, on the other hand, has a net decrease for the year of P0.05 per liter.
Prevailing retail prices of petroleum products in the National Capital Region for January 30 to February 5 range from P56.30 to P81.80 per liter for gasoline, P52.90 to P82.06 per liter for diesel and P72.09 to P83.48 per liter for kerosene.
On January 22, the oil companies also implemented an increase in the price of gasoline by P 1.30 per liter and P 0.95 per liter in diesel but did not move kerosene prices.
The oil firms also implemented a price hike for diesel and kerosene of P0.90 per liter and P0.30 per liter for gasoline on January 15.
Another oil price increase was implemented last January 8 where diesel and kerosene went up by P0.90 per liter and gasoline by P0.30 per liter.