Price surges at the gas pumps will again squeeze consumers’ pockets this week as gasoline products will rise by P1.90 per liter, while diesel prices will increase by P1.50 per liter, as announced by the oil companies.

Oil industry players similarly sent notices on a heftier P2.50 per liter hike for kerosene products, a vital base for aviation fuel as well as an essential commodity for many households in the Philippines.

As of this writing, the oil firms that already advised on their price hikes include Shell Pilipinas Corporation, Cleanfuel, Seaoil, Unioil and Chevron effective Tuesday, Aug. 15. Their newly-enforced price trends are generally expected to be matched by their competitors.

The domestic oil companies have been anchoring their weekly price adjustments with the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), an index that tracks not just the swing of prices in the world market but also reflects the dynamics of fuel commodity trading in the Asian region.

The market development which primarily revved up price uptrends in recent days had been the inventory buildup of China and the United States, portending demand escalation which may then strain available supply flowing into markets.

That sentiment had likewise been upended by the recent pronouncement of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) that crude oil consumption may rise by 2.25 million barrels per day next year, diverting a bit from the softer demand projection of its think tank-peer International Energy Agency.

Being an oil import-dependent country, the Philippine energy market does not have much choice but to just and always bear the chokehold of elevated prices at the petroleum pumps.

To an ordinary Filipino consumer, the constant upward tick in petroleum product costs will always entail substantial amount being siphoned off from household budgets because that does not just mean extra amounts paid at the gas stations, but such developments have spiraling effect on transport costs as well as on the prices of basic commodities.

And as the global economy is now shifting gears from the plague of the three-year pandemic, consumers will continue to ride the menace of volatile energy prices, primarily the weekly cost movements at the pumps.

In fact this time, there is already a clamor from the public transport sector of the country for fares to be adjusted upwards because they are already suffering from substantially reduced take-home earnings.