Prices of petroleum commodities will be on hefty upticks next week, as calculated by the industry players.
Based on estimates by oil companies, the price of gasoline products will rise by P3.00 to P3.40 per liter, while diesel will have an increase of P2.20 to P2.60 per liter.
Additionally, kerosene, which is an indispensable commodity for households and major industries like aviation, its price will also escalate by as much as P2.30 to P2.70 per liter.
The oil firms will be adjusting their prices on Tuesday, Jan. 24. The increases are based on cost swings of the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), the rubber stamp pricing reference adopted by the deregulated downstream oil industry of the Philippines.
Apart from price uptrends at the pumps, consumers may have to brace for further squeeze on their pockets next month, as the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is also seen ticking up with recent price hike projection placed at P3.50 to P4.50 per kilogram.
Prior to the forthcoming price increases, a monitoring report of the Department of Energy (DOE) has shown that price adjustments since the start of January already logged net increases of P3.10 per liter for gasoline and P0.80 per liter for kerosene, while diesel had a net decrease of P0.20 per liter.
The fresh round of price rally in the world market had been mainly attributed to the rebound in China’s demand following its reopening from extremely rigid "zero tolerance" Covid policy.
That major development in one of the world’s super power countries had subsequently prompted both the Paris-headquartered International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and ally-producers (collectively known as OPEC+) to raise demand projections within this year.
The IEA, in particular, indicated that the lifting of Covid restrictions in China will catapult demand escalation to record high this 2023, climbing from the current 100 million barrels per day to roughly 104 million b/d toward the end of this year.
The ricochet in the Chinese market’s energy demand is seen aggravating supply shortfall that have been distressing the global oil market in some periods in the past two years.