Consumers will need to shell out heftier budgets again this week if they will fill up their vehicles as the price of diesel will be increased by P4.10 per liter; while gasoline prices will rise by P3.00 per liter, effective Tuesday, April 26.
Industry players similarly advised that the price of kerosene, a fuel commodity that serves as a base for aviation fuel, will also climb by P3.50 per liter.
As of this writing, the oil companies that already sent notices on their price adjustments include Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation, Cleanfuel and Seaoil while the rest of their competitor-firms are anticipated to follow.
The highly volatile prices in the world market are still ignited by the niggling Russia-Ukraine war, with threats of a ban on Russian oil recently triggering the fresh wave of upswings in international oil prices.
Last week’s new round of rally in prices though may take a reverse course next week, with the possibility of rollback if current price trends will be sustained the rest of trading days this week.
As of Monday, April 25, trading price for international benchmark Brent crude had fallen to $103 per barrel from last Friday’s $106 per barrel, and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude plunged anew to $99 per barrel level while Dubai crude had been steady at $103 per barrel.
According to global experts, oil markets had turned bearish because of the pronouncement of the member-countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA) on coordinated release from their oil stockpiles so they can help ease tight supply worries in markets.
For the Philippine oil industry, the critical segment of the transport sector is being supported by fuel subsidies at the height of the price surges, but even that cannot be relied upon by public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers at this point because the distribution of financial assistance had recently stopped on account of policy impediments linked to the ongoing election period in the country.
There are more than 377,000 franchised PUV drivers in the country, but the distribution of fuel subsidies just covered roughly 111,000 or barely one-third because the government also needed to resolve first the printing of cards for the new claimants.