Oil firms are implementing P0.90 per liter increase on gasoline prices while diesel prices are being reduced by P0.30 per liter.
Kerosene, which is the other product in the triumvirate of weekly price swings, is going up by P1.35 per liter, based on the pricing adjustment notices sent by the oil companies.
As of this writing, the oil firms that already advised on their price movements include Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation, Seaoil, Cleanfuel, PetroGazz and Chevron effective Tuesday, Nov. 15, while their competitor-firms are all anticipated to follow.
The oil firms will be implementing their price adjustments based on the rise and fall of trading prices in the regional market last week -- as anchored on the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), the pricing reference being employed by the players of the deregulated downstream oil industry.
There is no end in sight yet on the prevailing seesaw of global oil prices, hence, the Philippine petroleum market is expected to be tormented with continuing volatility in prices in the weeks and months ahead.
The market fundamentals closely being monitored at this point are the targeted relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions in China because that will have impact on demand; as well as the planned output cut by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its ally-producers (collectively known as OPEC+) – that is, if they would really seriously adhere to their proposed 2.0 million barrels per day production cut.
On the sidelines of the recently concluded ASEAN Summit in Cambodia, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. personally made an appeal to US President Joe Biden to "do something" on the relentlessly rising international oil prices, but even the biggest economy of the world is actually a casualty of this tormenting state of the energy sector.
The surging pump prices had prompted many consumers to shift to electric vehicles (EVs), but this is a technology solution that has yet to make inroads in the Philippine market.
And apart from the fuel subsidy policy being enforced by the government via the Pantawid Pasada program, there are no other tangible short-term solutions being pursued by the Marcos administration yet to ease the predicaments of consumers every time there are price upswings at the pumps.
Even the proposed "fuel cost unbundling" policy, that could invoke transparency in pricing oil products, is not also gaining that much traction in Congress because there is strong opposition from the oil companies on the enactment of the proposed law.