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“MORE to
come.” That’s the grim message of oil companies, even
after increasing diesel and kerosene prices by P1.50 per
liter and gasoline by P1 per liter over the weekend.
“If we
could just increase prices by P3/liter over the weekend,
[it] would sort of help us accelerate [efforts to]
recoup our underrecoveries,” an oil-industry source
said, by way of indirectly justifying the latest price
hikes by noting that these covered just half of what
they needed to get back.
The
source, who requested anonymity, quickly told the
BusinessMirror that they just could not increase prices
by that much, though, as such would definitely raise
eyebrows among consumers.
Even
then, the source quickly added, underrecoveries have
already ballooned to P8/liter owing to the continuous
increase in world oil prices.
The
source said the price of diesel prices could reach
P50/liter by next month, and even a zero-rated import
tariff could not help avert it.
Over the
weekend, oil companies Chevron Philippines Inc., Petron
Corp., Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. and Total
(Philippines) Corp. announced that they have increased
the price of diesel and kerosene by P1.50/liter and
gasoline by P1/liter.
According to the Department of Energy (DOE), oil
benchmark Dubai crude averaged $116.69 per barrel this
month from $103.41 per barrel in April.
The DOE
also noted that Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS)-based
gasoline averaged $127.76 per barrel this month from
$118.08 per barrel in April; and MOPS-based diesel, at
$156.13 per barrel this month from $141.98 per barrel in
April.
The DOE
added that the price of liquefied petroleum gas has also
risen to $855.50 per metric ton this month from just
$812 per metric ton in April.
As of
May 17, the DOE reported that the per liter price of
unleaded gasoline ranged P49.33 to P51.57; diesel at
P41.67 liter to P43.97 per liter; kerosene, P46.15 to
P49.30; and LPG from P575.50 per 11-kilo tank to P627.25
per 11-kilo tank.
The DOE
earlier announced that the tariff rate on crude and
refined petroleum products will be zero-rated effective
June 1 after it completes a 15-day review of Dubai and
diesel benchmark prices in the international market from
May 1 to 15.
The
15-day review is part of the automatic tariff adjustment
mechanism which is based on certain triggers indexed to
international crude oil prices. The average price of
Dubai crude and diesel in the international market was
above $115.46 per barrel and $153.52 per barrel,
respectively, during the period May 1 to 15 this year.
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