Motorists filling up their vehicles with diesel shall brace for a financial next week, as the price of this fuel commodity is anticipated to soar by as much as P6.30 to P6.50 per liter, based on calculation by oil companies.
Industry players similarly estimated that the price of gasoline will rise by P2.60 to P2.80 per liter while kerosene prices will also incur massive increase of P5.10 to P5.30 per liter.
The oil firms will implement the upward price adjustments on Tuesday, June 7 based on cost swings linked to the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), the pricing reference being employed by the players in the domestic downstream oil industry.
The fresh round of hefty price hikes is a reversal from two weeks of rollbacks on some fuel products that had been implemented recently due to the temporary softening of prices in the world market.
Last week, international prices surged to another record-high of $123 per barrel following the imposition of Russian oil embargo by many countries of the European Union (EU), a decision that they firmed up last May 31.
The prohibition of Russian oil cargoes into EU revolves around cutting off financing, financial assistance as well as insurance to its fuel commodities, which have a wind-down period of six months.
As of Friday, June 3 trading, international benchmark Brent crude already tapered off to $119 per barrel, but that was still higher than the previous week’s $112-$113 per barrel level. Dubai crude, which is the pricing reference for Asian markets, was at $108 per barrel.
Apart from the enforced ban on Russian oil, other factors affecting radical spikes include the lifting of China’s Covid lockdown, triggering immediate demand upticks.
In fact, even the decision of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to pump in additional 648,000 barrels into the market by July-August failed to bring prices down into the targeted $110 per barrel territory.
Another market element that had driven prices up last week was the relentless news of falling inventories of crude and gasoline stocks by the United States, the world’s biggest oil consumer.
The Philippines is highly import-dependent on its fuel requirements due to lack of domestic petroleum discoveries of commercial scale, hence, its consumers will continue to be burdened with financial torment every time global oil prices would be on astronomical rise.