Consumers will have mixed emotions on their drive to petroleum pumps this week, as gasoline users will have their pockets squeezed by a relatively hefty spike; while diesel prices would be unchanged. The industry players announced that gasoline prices will rise by P1.10 per liter as had been anticipated; while diesel prices will be steady for the rest of the week. For kerosene, which is the other commodity in the triumvirate of weekly cost swings, it will have a rollback of P0.35 per liter, as advised by the petroleum companies. As of press time, the oil firms that already sent notices on their price adjustments effective Tuesday (May 30) had been Shell Pilipinas Corporation, Seaoil, Cleanfuel, Jetti Petroleum and Chevron; while their industry rivals are expected to match the enforced pricing trends. The oil companies had implemented the cost movements based on the outcome of commodities trading in the regional market, enforcing the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) as their pricing reference. The rise in the price of gasoline in the world market had been mainly attributed to the start of driving season in the United States, the biggest consumer globally – as the scorching weather in that part of the world already kicked off last week. Pricing seesaw has been dominating the global oil industry in the past two weeks – and that was propelled by conflicting fundamentals influencing market sentiments; including the proposed debt ceiling program of the US, because that will have implication on how oil demand would fare in the coming months. In the next round of price adjustments, however, it was noted that the scheduled June meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its ally-producers (OPEC+) may weigh heavily how prices as well as supply-demand balance would be shaping in the weeks ahead. So far, the mammoth global producers like Saudi Arabia and Russia can’t agree yet on the pronouncements they been signaling to markets – primarily on decision whether or not there will be enforcement of fresh round of production cuts. As of Monday (May 29) trading, spot price for futures contract of international benchmark Brent crude had been tracking upwards – reaching a level of more than $77 per barrel from last week’s leaner scale of $75 per barrel.