4 oil firms implement huge price increase

MANILA, Philippines - At least four oil companies implemented yesterday a huge or big-time price increase, marking the third consecutive week of price hikes.

Major firms Petron Corp. and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., and independent firms Total Philippines Corp. and Seaoil Philippines Inc. increased prices of premium gasoline by P1.80 per liter and regular gasoline by P1.65 per liter.

Petron and Total added P1 per liter for diesel while Shell and Seaoil marked up diesel prices by P1.20 per liter.

Shell and Seaoil also increased the prices of kerosene by P1.35 per liter while Petron adjusted its kerosene rate by P1.30 per liter.

“This is to reflect movements in the international oil market,” Petron and Seaoil said.

International prices have increased for the past few weeks due to the Eurozone’s embargo on Iran oil and geopolitical tensions in Middle East countries like Syria that might disrupt the flow of oil supply.

The Department of Energy (DOE) earlier warned of more than P1 per liter price increase this week due to troubles abroad.

Since the start of the year, there have been 13 price increases and 15 price reductions, DOE data show.

To date, gasoline posted a net increase of 43 centavos per liter. Prior to the P1 to P1.20 per liter increase this week, diesel prices recorded a net decrease of P3.16 per liter.

Under the Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act of 1998, oil firms can price their products based on market forces so as to encourage competition.

The deregulation law also prohibits the government from intervening or influencing the pricing schemes of oil companies.

However, for monitoring purposes, the DOE has requested the oil firms to report any price adjustments before implementing these.