The country’s oil firms raised pump prices by as much as P0.40 per liter effective 6 a.m. Tuesday to reflect the movement of prices in the world market.
The oil firms raised the price of diesel by P0.40 per liter and P0.30 per liter for kerosene but cut the price of gasoline by P0.10 per liter.
“Petron will implement the following price adjustments effective 6 a.m. Jan. 7: P0.10 per liter rollback for gasoline; P0.40 per liter increase for diesel; and P0.30 per liter increase for kerosene. These reflect movements in the international oil market,” Petron Corp., the biggest oil player said.
PTT Philippines, Chevron Philippines, Phoenix Petroleum Philippines, PetroGazz and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. separately announced their respective price adjustments.
Meanwhile, the Energy department is hoping that the US-Iran conflict will not affect global oil supply which could trigger an increase in oil prices.
“Definitely this is a regrettable event that poses a real threat to oil supply, as it is now this is a direct conflict between US and Iran, hoping this will not escalate to affect even the supply of oil,” Energy director Rino Abad said.
An oil industry executive is also hoping that the “situation cools off in the Middle East.”
“The timing is very bad,” the official said.
He said there are too many things happening that contribute to the increase in price other than the US-Iran incident.
These developments include the implementation of the third tranche of the excise tax under the TRAIN Law, additional reduction of OPEC production taking effect in January, improvement in China and US trade relations, among others.