Motorists using gasoline gasoline fuel will need to beef up their budget as the price of this commodity is expected to rise by P1.35 to P1.65 per liter, based on the calculation by oil companies.
For diesel products, the estimated price hike will be leaner at P0.30 to P0.60 per liter, while kerosene products are expected to increase by P0.35 to P0.65 per liter.
Industry players will be adjusting their prices on Tuesday, July 25, based on cost swings of the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) index, the regional reference pricing being applied by the local oil firms in pricing their products.
The MOPS follows the trend of prices in the world market, including cost movements for the basket of crudes, plus it factors in the weekly supply-demand dynamics in Asia and more focused developments in the Southeast Asian region.
Prior to the forthcoming round of price adjustments, a monitoring report of the Department of Energy (DOE) has shown that prices since the start of the year rounded up to a net increase of P7.55 per liter for gasoline, while there had been aggregate reduction of P0.85 per liter for diesel and P3.70 per liter for kerosene products.
In the initial trading days last week, global oil prices tracked downtrend toward $77 to $78 per barrel level following China’s announcement of lower-than-anticipated GDP growth.
However, the incursion of colliding factors such as nagging speculations on the continued policy of the US Federal Reserve on interest rate hikes and other geopolitical events had driven prices back to the level of $81 per barrel territory as of Friday, July 21, trading.
According to experts, the overwhelming vote of the US Senate on banning exports of strategic petroleum reserve to China had been one of the major triggers to the fresh round of uptick in oil prices.
Another development being closely watched in the Asian market is the decision of the South Korean market – primarily on whether or not its retail fuel tax cuts will be extended.
For the Philippine oil market, apart from volatile regional and global prices, the saving grace for cost fluctuation at the pumps is the appreciating value of the Philippine peso versus the greenback.