Oil, LPG prices up

The pockets of Filipino consumers will be handicapped as the prices of petroleum products and Liquefied Petroleum Gas will increase today.

As advised by oil companies, the price of diesel will rise by P0.80 per liter; gasoline by P0.75 per liter; and kerosene by P0.90 per liter due to the escalation of prices in the world market.

Oil companies that have sent price adjustment notices were Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Total, PTT Philippines, PetroGazz, and Seaoil effective 6 a.m. while the rest of the industry players are anticipated to follow.

The per-kilogram cost of LPG will be higher as indicated by industry players due to the uptrend in Saudi contract prices.

All of these prime commodities in the oil sector have their costs swing depending on the movements of prices in the world market and that is subsequently reflected in domestic prices.

Adding up to the cost movement trigger is the fluctuation in the peso-dollar exchange rate, with the value of the local currency depreciating again last week.

As culled from the monitoring of the Department of Energy, the pick-up price of LPG in retail outlets in Metro Manila had been ranging from P615 to P800 for the standard cooking cylinder used in households prior to this anticipated round of adjustment.

The biggest guessing-game in the world market is whether or not the alliance of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russian-led producers would carry on – and if their agreement on production cuts will stay or they may finally opt to let the market work according to supply-demand dynamics without the “market rebalancing mechanism” being resorted to since the price crash in 2014-2015. (Myrna Velasco)