Oil firms hike prices for second straight week

Oil companies raised gasoline prices again yesterday morning.

In separate advisories, local petroleum players said they raised prices of gasoline and diesel products by P0.55 per liter and by P0.70 per liter for kerosene.

“PTT Philippines will increase prices of both its gasoline and diesel products by P0.55 per liter effective 6 a.m. Tuesday, April 22,” said PTT Philippines, the local subsidiary of Thailand’s biggest oil company.

Petron Corp., the country’s biggest oil refiner, issued a similar announcement.

“Petron will implement the following price increases effective 6 a.m. April 22: P0.55 per liter for gasoline and diesel and P0.70 per liter for kerosene. This reflects movements in the international oil market,” Petron said Monday night.

Chevron Philippines also said it would increase prices of gold, silver and diesel by P0.55 per liter and kerosene by P0.70 per liter.

This is the second consecutive week of price hikes, reversing the rollback that local petroleum players implemented two weeks ago.

Last week, oil firms raised gasoline prices by P0.60 per liter and diesel prices by P0.10 per liter.

With the increase, oil prices now range anywhere from P42.55 to P45.95 for diesel and P50.65 to P56.75 per liter for gasoline, based on the Department of Energy ( DOE)’ s April 15 oil price monitoring report.

According to the DOE report, global crude prices are on the rise amid tensions between Ukraine and Russia, which raised concerns that energy supplies to Europe could be disrupted.

A halt of Russian crude through Ukraine could hugely impact oil prices as it is the world’s seventh largest crude shipper and major exporter of crude oil to Europe and Asia.

“The Asian gasoil and diesel market is likely to see greater support on growing demand strength in Europe. Singaporebased traders believe that the strength is most likely linked to increasing tension around Ukraine and Russia’s situation,” the DOE said.