WATCH: Why is oil so expensive these days?

MANILA, Philippines — As pandemic restrictions relax all over the Philippines, the national government hopes Filipinos will go out of their homes and spend what they have to help the economy recover. But massive oil price hikes muddy the recovery picture.

Even before Russia started invading its neighbor Ukraine, oil prices had been moving up in the past months as a result of easing pandemic curbs. This is because supply was not keeping up with rising demand as top oil-producing countries resisted US pressure to further boost production to tame prices.

That did not cause much panic, yet. But when the threat of Russia's invasion of Ukraine became all too real, the price of oil shot up to dizzying levels that we're now seeing today.

In this explainer, we try to unpack why oil prices, not just in the country but also globally, are stubbornly high these days. — video by EC Toledo