Consumers’ pockets will suffer another major squeeze as big-time pump price hikes are anticipated again next week due to soaring prices in the world market, according to oil companies.
Based on the initial calculation, prices will rise by P1.10 to P1.20 per liter for RON92 gasoline products and P1.30 to P1.40 per liter for RON95 gasoline; while diesel prices will climb by P1.05 to P1.15 per liter.
Kerosene, another socially sensitive commodity and also a base for aviation fuel, will be adjusted upwards by P1.15 to P1.25 per liter. Oil firms will implement the new round of price increases on Tuesday, Feb. 8, the sixth in a series of price adjustments this year.
A monitoring report of the Department of Energy (DOE) showed that the year-to-date adjustments in domestic pump prices already incurred net increases of P4.95 per liter for gasoline; P7.20 per liter for diesel; and P6.75 per liter for kerosene products.
International benchmark Brent crude inched up fairly close to $93 per barrel in last week’s trading due to the lingering Ukraine-Russia political stalemate; and on reported supply disruption from America’s shale play – that even WTI crude, which is the reference pricing for the US market, had surged to the level of $92 per barrel.
For Dubai crude, which is regarded as oil pricing barometer for the Asian market, it also jumped to $83 per barrel last week, going along with the rally of all other commodities in the crude basket of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which is the high-powered cartel of world oil producers.
Global experts likewise noted that oil price volatility have been worsened by the explosions in Nigeria as well as the landslides in Ecuador, and the aggravating winter storm in the US that may affect production at the Permian basin.
On expectation of demand surge, the OPEC and its ally-producers (collectively known as OPEC+) had decided recently that they will inject additional 400,000 barrels per day into market by March this year, but that has not been enough lever yet to tame the rally in international prices.
In the Philippine market, apart from skyrocketing oil prices in the world market, the depreciating value of the local currency versus the US dollar will be exerting added pressure into the weekly cost adjustments at the oil pumps.