January 16 ------ Motorists filling up their vehicles with diesel products will have to brace for a bigger squeeze in their pockets this week, as the price of this commodity will rise by P0.90 per liter, according to the pricing adjustment advisories of the oil companies. For gasoline products, the increase will be leaner at P0.30 per liter; while kerosene prices will also have upward adjustment of P0.90 per liter.
As of this writing, the oil firms that already announced their price hikes effective Tuesday (January 16) had been Shell Pilipinas Corporation, Cleanfuel, Seaoil, PetroGazz, Jetti Petroleum and Chevron; while their competitor-firms are expected to match their respective adjustments. This is already the third week that prices will be fluctuating at the domestic pumps, and so far, based on monitoring report of the Department of Energy (DOE), the cost movements still posted net decrease of P0.25 per liter for diesel; and P1.30 per liter for kerosene. Fortunately, it is still manifest that seesaw in prices has not been adversely affecting the industry and consumers yet, but developments in the days ahead portend possible price upticks that will also affect pass-on prices at Philippine pumps.
Global industry players are keeping a close watch on the impact of the intensifying geopolitical tension in the Middle East – primarily the attacks recently launched by the United States and the United Kingdom against the Houthi militants in Yemen. That geopolitical strain had so far triggered the seizure of an oil delivering tanker in the Gulf of Oman, which prompted even higher risk premium for freight costs imposed on oil products.
On top of that, there is also escalating ‘proxy war’ between Israel and Iran and that has so far been adding up to pricing pressure on oil commodities in the world market. For an oil import-dependent economy like the Philippines, it does not have any choice on these conflict-ridden events in the Middle East and it can only hope that they will not precipitate radical spikes in pump prices.
If the conflicts will not ease in the forthcoming trading days, it is highly probable that the next round of price adjustments will be tracking uptrend again.
Source: mb.com.ph
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