The financial predicament of consumers will worsen this week as the price of diesel this week will go up by P1.10 per liter, the highest adjustment for this fuel commodity since the start of this year.
For kerosene products, the price hike will also be significant at P1.00 per liter as announced by the oil companies; while gasoline prices will increase by P0.85 per liter.
As of press time, the oil firms that already sent notices on their price hikes had been Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation, Seaoil, Cleanfuel and PetroGazz effective on Tuesday (February 9); while their competitors are anticipated to follow their pricing leads.
This round of substantial rally in prices had been mainly attributed to the surge of crude oil prices last week, with international benchmark Brent crude surging past US$60 per barrel.
To industry watchers, such development in the global oil markets last week could be harbinger of things to come – with forecasts of supply tightening that may continuously trigger hikes in pump prices in the coming months.
By far, market experts noted it was the first time that international oil prices breached pre-pandemic levels – because crude prices had been at US$60 per barrel level before the enforcement of massive lockdowns when the health crisis took its toll on humanity starting March last year.
The Philippine market has always considered year 2021 as the ‘rebound phase’ of the downstream oil sector; after demand and prices hit rock bottom in 2020 – that in turn had sparked financial hemorrhage of most, if not all, of the industry players.
Despite continued caution because of the new Covid-19 strain, the government is bent on easing further the movement restriction among Filipinos; while also pushing for wider economic reopening across industries and through the value chain.
In the coming months, the country is also eyeing further relief on the pandemic’s impact as vaccination program will already start based on the priority list already drawn up by the State.
While it remains a guessing game on when the country can fully recover from the pandemic’s onslaught, government leaders are assuring that it will certainly turn out better this year for the economy.