Budgets among Filipino households need upward adjustment with the “super spike” in liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) at P11.18 to P11.20 per kilogram (kg).
As announced by industry players, the price of standard 11-kilogram tank which is the typical size being purchased for home cooking will redound to staggering increase of P122.98 to P123.20 that will slip away from consumers’ pockets.
LPG firms that already announced their price hikes effective Wednesday, Feb. 1, include leading player Petron Corporation and Phoenix Petroleum at P11.20 per kilogram; while their competitor-company Solane implemented slightly lower adjustment of P11.18 per kg – all inclusive of value added tax (VAT) charges.
Based on the monitoring report of the Department of Energy (DOE), the pick-up price of LPG at various retail outlets in Metro Manila prior to this round of cost escalations had been at P824 to P964 for the typical 11-kilogram cylinder.
Additionally, the price of autoLPG for the transport sector had been jacked up by P6.25 per liter by Petron and Phoenix Petroleum; while Cleanfuel had way leaner price uptick of P5.50 per liter.
The new prices of LPG products will be constant for the rest of the month, being the routine on cost movements for such type of fuel commodities at the deregulated domestic oil market.
This surge in LPG prices will add up to the endless financial burden of Filipino families – sweeping through inflated costs of basic commodities and services; rising prices at the petroleum pumps; and next one will be the highly anticipated spiral in electricity rates that may even be compounded by service disruptions in the summer months.
The LPG companies noted that this fresh wave of price escalations in LPG prices had been due to the unprecedented upswing in international contract prices (CP) that had been benchmarked on Saudi Aramco’s contract costs, that in turn is employed as the pricing reference for Asian markets.
According to global experts, the swell in LPG prices had been mainly precipitated by China’s economic reopening from its strict Covid restrictions; as well as increase in demand of winter-engulfed countries that have been using the product as heating fuel.
The DOE explained that apart from Saudi’s contract prices, the other factor influencing LPG price movement is the fluctuation in foreign exchange (forex) rates, adding that “the Philippines has no influence over the LPG CP as the country’s domestic requirement is small versus world demand.”