Hefty fuel price hike set next week

A tricycle driver searches his pocket for bills and coins to pay for fuel at a gasoline station on E. Rodriguez Avenue in Quezon City. (File photo by NIÑO JESUS ORBETA / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines — Oil companies are poised to jack up fuel prices again next week.

Based on industry estimates, the upward adjustment is significantly higher than what the oil firms implemented on Tuesday.

An industry source told the Inquirer on Saturday that the price of diesel might go up by P3.80 to P4 per liter and gasoline by P3.10 to P3.30 per liter based on the average of Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) from April 18 to 22.

MOPS, the regional pricing benchmark for refined oil products, is used by the country’s oil industry for pricing finished petroleum products.

Local oil company Unioil said the cost of diesel was expected to go up by P3.90 to P4.10 per liter and gasoline by P3 to P3.20 per liter.

Rino Abad, director of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oil Industry Management Bureau, on Friday confirmed the looming big-time pump price hike.

“We confirm that there is an impending price increase in fuel prices and the increase is quite hefty,” said Abad told a radio interview.

In a statement on Friday, the DOE cited factors that contribute to the volatility in global crude prices. These include the impasse on the ongoing peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, which have been at war since February this year, and the European Union’s possible embargo on Russian oil.

On Tuesday, oil firms raised the prices of gasoline and kerosene by P0.45 per liter and diesel by P1.70 per liter.

This brings the total increase to P15.45 per liter for gasoline, P27.35 per liter for diesel, and P21.55 per liter for kerosene.

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