At A Glance
- In this week's upswing in prices, the main trigger had been geopolitical events linked to disrupted maritime trade due to renewed attacks of the Houthi militants in the Red Sea, which forced shipping vessels to re-route product deliveries across markets.
The year 2023 is ending with a bang for Filipino consumers at the pumps, as oil prices will incur significant increases, according to the calculation of the oil companies.
As culled from the estimates of the industry players, gasoline prices will increase by P1.45 to P1.85 per liter; while diesel prices will escalate by P1.40 to P1.80 per liter.
Additionally, the price of kerosene, which a base for aviation fuel, will climb by P1.50 to P1.90 per liter, the oil firms noted.
The final calculation on the price adjustments will be firmed up by Friday (December 22), which is the last day of trading of finished petroleum products in the regional market; hence, the prospective price adjustments may still change.
If reckoned on the four-day average of the MOPS index, the price of gasoline so far went up by P1.451 per liter; diesel by P1.436 per liter; and kerosene by P1.529 per liter.
The oil companies will be implementing their last price adjustments this year by Tuesday (December 26), in line with the routine of cost movements in the deregulated downstream oil industry.
Prior to the forthcoming price spikes, a monitoring report of the Department of Energy (DOE) has shown that prices since the start of the year logged net increases of P11.00 per liter for gasoline; P3.95 per liter for diesel; and P0.31 per liter for kerosene.
The uptick in prices will follow several weeks of price cuts due to softening of prices in the world market, which had been precipitated mainly by the widely perceived slowdown in global economic growths.
In this week’s upswing in prices, the main trigger had been geopolitical events linked to disrupted maritime trade due to renewed attacks of the Houthi militants in the Red Sea, which forced shipping vessels to re-route product deliveries across markets.
That major development jolted oil markets, prompting international benchmark Brent crude to drastically climb to $80 per barrel from the leaner scale of $76 per barrel last week.
In the Asian market, experts likewise emphasized rise in demand which added up to pricing pressures that shall be reflected at the domestic pumps next week.