Cooking gas prices down, gasoline prices up

MANILA, Philippines - The series of rollbacks of gasoline pump prices ended yesterday as oil companies announced another round of rate increase effective today.

Petron Corp., the country’s biggest oil refiner, announced an increase of 35 centavos per liter for premium gasoline.

“This reflects movements in the international oil market,” Petron said.

On the other hand, the price increase announcement came with an adjustment in prices of  liquefied petroleum gas or LPG.

“Petron will implement the following price adjustments effective 6 a.m. April 2. Rollback: P3 per kilogram for Gasul and Fiesta Gas (VAT excluded) and P1.88 per liter (VAT Included) for Xtend AutoLPG,” Petron said.

Earlier in the day, the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers’ Association (LPGMA) party-list group also announced a P1 per kilo decrease in the prices of cooking gas or P11 per 11-kilogram tank.

LPGMA said the downward adjustment reflects price movements in the global market.

The increase in gasoline prices yesterday ended five consecutive weeks of oil price rollbacks, which followed four straight weeks of price increases in local pump prices.

Energy officials have said that it was difficult to say how long the downward trend would continue.

The party-list group 1-UTAK has already asked the Department of Energy and the Department of Justice to look into possible pricing collaboration among the country’s oil firms.

Vigor Mendoza, 1-UTAK chairman, urged the energy and justice department-led Task Force on Oil Prices to look into possible pricing collaboration, saying that oil firms seem to change prices by slightly less during episodes of world price decreases.

In a recent letter to Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla, Mendoza, a member of the Independent Oil Price Review Committee, said a percentage of change in the MOPS (Mean of Platts Singapore) and foreign exchange should have exactly the same percentage of change in the corresponding pump prices.

He urged the energy department to put safety nets for tricycle drivers in order to cope with high oil prices.