Filipino motorists will suffer another round of price hikes on their fuel consumption this week -- and this is already the third batch of increases for this month.
As announced by the oil companies, gasoline prices will be up slightly by P0.10 per liter; while diesel and kerosene prices will be increased by P0.30 per liter effective Tuesday (July 20).
As of this writing, the oil firms that already sent notices on their price hikes had been Seaoil, Cleanfuel, PetroGazz, Pilipinas Shell, Total, PTT Philippines and Chevron; while their industry competitors are all anticipated to follow.
Of the oil companies, only Cleanfuel did not increase prices for gasoline products. Cleanfuel, however, matched the P0.30 per liter adjustment of its industry rivals.
The comparatively marginal upward price adjustments this week had been due to the weakening of demand in the international market – primarily in the US; which in turn, had driven down global oil prices.
Nevertheless, for the Philippines, there was still upward cost pressure at the domestic pumps because of the depreciating value of the Philippine peso versus the US dollar, as that is one major determinant in pricing fuel products.
For the month of July alone, gasoline prices had already risen by aggregate P1.85 per liter; diesel had gone up by P1.00 per liter; and kerosene by P0.90 per liter.