Caltex, Total, Petron raise prices

Major oil players Caltex Philippines Inc., Petron Corp. and Total Philippines Inc. raised yesterday their prices by 60 centavos per liter for gasoline and 30 centavos for diesel and kerosene.

They also marked up the price of their liquefied petroleum gas products by 75 centavos per kilo effective today.

The oil firms have warned they will likely carry out a series of oil price increases in the coming weeks.

Total corporate communications manager Rona Quejada said the increase was due to the continuous steep rise of the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), a benchmark used by oil importers in pricing their products in the local market.

The three oil firms followed the lead of Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. which took a cue from Eastern Petroleum Corp. and Flying V that raised the prices of their gasoline products by 80 centavos per liter and 50 centavos for their diesel and kerosene last Sunday.

Shell spokesman Roberto Kanapi had warned of an impending price adjustment if world crude prices continue to soar in the next few weeks.

"We are implementing partial oil price hike in order to observe and monitor developments in the coming weeks. Should prices move down in the coming weeks, we could consider retaining our prices for a longer period in order to cover for our underrecoveries in the past," Kanapi said.

Eastern Petroleum was the first to have jacked up the price of petroleum products for this month, citing the continuous uptrend in world oil prices.

Eastern Petroleum chairman Fernando Martinez said the company still has an underrecovery of 80 centavos per liter despite the price increase it has just implemented.