Shell to raise prices by 49¢ per liter today

Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. is likely to raise its prices today by an average of 49 centavos per liter.

"We are meeting today (Jan. 2) and will likely move our prices by tomorrow," Shell external affairs manager Robert Kanapi said.

Petron Corp. corporate communications manager Virginia Ruivivar said the company is not yet ready to issue any statement on whether it will increase its pump prices or not. "We have yet to assess the situation and study our figures," she said.

Kanapi said they have to make adjustments based on competitive pressures. "We have to take into consideration the price adjustment made by some Caltex dealers (49 centavos per liter last Dec. 28)," he said.

It normally takes a day or two for other firms to adjust their prices once one oil firm initiates an oil price increase or reduction. In this case, it took Petron and Shell along with other small oil players almost a week to follow suit after Caltex adjusted its pump prices last Dec. 28.

Kanapi said they could not go beyond or below what the market dictates. "We have to consider our competitors’ move. It’s a very competitive market. If we will increase our prices, it would be around that level (49 centavos per liter)," he said.

But Kanapi assured that while they have been seeing a series of prices hikes in the next few weeks due to the continuing rise in world crude prices and the impact of new gasoline specifications under the Clean Air Act (CAA), Shell will make the adjustments in staggered basis.

"It has been our policy to adjust our prices in small increments. We know it would be difficult for consumers so we have to make some adjustments that would lessen the impact to consumers," he said.

It was estimated that the CAA impact on gasoline prices would range from 80 centavos to P1 per liter.

Kanapi said that the Dubai crude, a benchmark for pricing local oil products, averaged $25.60 per barrel in December compared to $23.31 in November.

He said Dubai crude had gone up to as high as $28 per barrel before it softened to $26 in the last few days of Decemmber.