At A Glance
- Onward, the prognosis for oil markets could be fresh wave of price hikes with recent news of an oil tanker from Marshall Islands being seized by Iran in the Gulf of Oman.
Consumers will brace for new round of financial pain in their pockets next week as prices at petroleum pumps will be on uptrend, according to the industry players.
Based on the calculation of the oil companies, the price of diesel will rise by P0.70 per liter to P1.20 per liter; while gasoline prices will have an increase of P0.15 to P0.65 per liter by Tuesday (January 16).
Of the three commodities having weekly cost adjustments, it will be kerosene products that will incur heftier hike of P0.75 to P1.25 per liter.
If purely reckoned on the outcome of regional oil trading as indexed on the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), the estimated price adjustments would be: P0.701 per liter for diesel; P0.119 per liter for gasoline; and P0.768 per liter for kerosene products.
Nevertheless, the oil firms qualified that price increases may turn higher because of the roughly $3.0 market risk premium triggered by the heightened tension in the Middle East – especially with the recent decision of the United States and the United Kingdom on launching their attacks against the Houthi militants in Yemen.
Following that move of the world’s powerful nations, international benchmark Brent crude hurriedly climbed to $80 per barrel; but it eventually eased to $78 per barrel at the close of end-week trading on Friday (January 12).
Given the escalated geopolitical tension following the US/UK attacks on the rebels, it is an emerging scenario that shipping vessels may have prolonged ban to pass through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, a commercial trade passage which lies between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti and Eritrea that have links to the Red Sea.
As emphasized by industry experts, the risk premium for oil products had been at elevated scale because of the diverted routes of commercial vessels delivering energy commodities across key markets globally.
Onward, the prognosis for oil markets could be fresh wave of price hikes with recent news of an oil tanker from Marshall Islands being seized by Iran in the Gulf of Oman.
With the stature of the Philippines as a market heavily depending on imports for its oil requirements, it is highly anticipated that its public transport will suffer another blow when weekly adjustments at the pumps will be tracking continuous upticks.