It will be distressing in consumers’ pockets to pass through gasoline stations to fill up their vehicles this week as the price of diesel will rise byP1.05 per liter, while gasoline prices will also climb by P0.90 per liter, as announced by oil companies.

Conversely for kerosene, which is a base fuel for the aviation industry and also an essential commodity in many Filipino homes, this will have a marginal reduction of P0.25.

As of press time, the industry players that already sent notices on their price adjustments had been Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation, Seaoil, Cleanfuel and Chevron effective Tuesday (February 21); while their competitor-firms are all anticipated to follow.

Based on a monitoring report of the Department of Energy (DOE) prior to this round of adjustment, the constant seesaw of prices at the domestic pumps since the start of the year resulted in a net increase of P5.10 per liter for gasoline; while overall downtrend had been logged for diesel at P2.15 per liter; and a marginal P0.25 per liter for kerosene.

In this week’s batch of cost movements, the pricing reference will still be the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), an index of fuel trading prices in the region which has been embraced by the Philippine oil companies as the benchmark in their weekly adjustments.

Apart from market forces, the fresh round of devaluation of the Philippine peso versus the US dollar also contributed to the escalation of the two major commodities – gasoline and diesel; because the oil companies have been using US dollar as a currency in procuring oil supply being brought into the country.

The uptick in prices in the world market last week had been mainly traced to Russia’s plan to enforce production cutback as a retaliatory move to the price cap sanctions of the European Union-member countries.

That particular step to be taken by Russia portends tightening of supply, hence, it had sent prices on another round of spiral in global trading.

As of last week, the United States which is the world’s biggest oil consumer laid down plans for another batch of release from its strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) as oil prices had been largely under pressure following its release of strong economic data.

For an import-dependent country like the Philippines, it will remain largely vulnerable to swing of prices in the world market catapulted by actions or geopolitical events that will be affecting fundamentals within the enclaves of mammoth producers as well as major buyers and sellers.