The country’s oil firms adopted a hefty price increase of P1.50 per liter effective 6 a.m. Tuesday to reflect the market sentiment in the world oil market.
Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Seaoil Philippines, PTT Philippines and Phoenix Petroleum Philippines issued their respective price advisories on the P1.50 per liter increase for gasoline, P1.40 per liter for kerosene and P1.35 per liter increase for diesel.
Other oil companies are expected to follow suit.
“This is to reflect the movement in the international petroleum market,” Seaoil said.
This followed the P1.38 per kg price increase equivalent to P15.18 for 11-kg tank in cooking gas prices over the weekend.
Energy Secretary Zenaida Monsada said oil prices went up as traders were still hoping that oil producing countries could come to an agreement to curtail production.
Monsada said increased demand from Vietnam and refinery shutdown also fueled the higher oil prices.
“Vietnam’s demand was unusually strong due to dry conditions. They were affected by El Niño, thus importation of diesel and gasoline supply went up. Many refineries are also undergoing maintenance shutdown,” Monsada.
The Energy Department’s monitoring showed that for gasoline and diesel, supply in the Asia Pacific and Middle East looked set to tighten further as import demand continued to mop up the available barrels.
A recent slew of buy tenders pointed to increasing buying interest from regular importers in the region, which was adding to the sharp rise in demand from India.
Platts, an oil industry think thanks noted upbeat demand in May than for the first four months of the year but a likely slowdown in domestic demand from China may push more surplus gasoline into the market, while refineries returning from turnarounds will also add to output levels.
Last April 26, most of the oil companies implemented a price rollback of P0.40 for gasoline and increase of P0.55 per liter for diesel and P0.20 for kerosene.