Oil firms raise gas, diesel prices by P1 per liter

MANILA, Philippines - Pilipinas Shell, Petron Corp., Chevron Philippines, and Phoenix Petroleum Philippines have increased the pump prices of gasoline and diesel by P1 per liter while the price of kerosene was hiked by 50 centavos per liter.

The price adjustment took effect at midnight.

Oil companies said the price increase was undertaken “to reflect movements in international oil prices and reflect local market competition.”

Unioil Petroleum Philippines Inc. increased the price of diesel by P1.40 per liter last Saturday.

“This is the first time that Unioil will have a price increase as response to the P2 increase by competitors implemented last week,” Unioil said.

Meanwhile, data from the Department of Energy (DOE) indicate that last week’s average prices were considerably higher than the previous week.

Gasoline increased by $5.94 per barrel (bbl) and diesel by $6.10/bbl.

Crude oil for September delivery went up by 0.5 percent to settle at $68.38/bbl on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude has risen 53 percent this year. Brent crude oil for September settlement rose 0.7 percent to $70.81/bbl on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange.

The peso had strengthened to P47.84 to the US dollar after floating around the P48 to the dollar level. On July 27, the peso weakened to an average P48.15 to the dollar versus P47.93 in June.