Shell, Petron hike LPG prices

MANILA, Philippines—Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. and Petron Corp. on Friday hiked prices of their liquefied petroleum gas by P1 a kilogram, or by P11 per 11-kilogram cylinder.

Shell was first to implement the price hike at 12:01 a.m., while Petron followed with the same adjustment at 6 a.m.

Both oil firms cited the increase in the international contract price for LPG as the reason for the price hike.

Petron also jacked up the price of its auto LPG, or LPG used as transport fuel, by 63 centavos a liter.

According to monitoring by the Department of Energy, prior to this price hike, the average price of cooking gas in Metro Manila ranged from P655 to P733 per cylinder.

With this price increase, consumers would now buy their LPG at between P666 and P744 a tank.

Just a few days ago, on Aug. 2, oil firms slashed prices of diesel by 50 centavos a liter and of kerosene by 25 centavos a liter, but hiked the price of gasoline by 20 centavos per liter.

Monitoring the July 25 to July 29 trading days, the DOE observed that world oil priced stayed at around the same level for the whole of July, amid talks over debt issues in Europe and the United States.

During the monitored trading week, prices were affected by the uncertainty over a deal to raise the US debt ceiling as well as weak gross domestic product numbers for the US in the second quarter.

The price of the regional benchmark Dubai crude increased by 50 US cents a barrel, gasoline by $2.10 per barrel, and diesel by 40 US cents a barrel on the last week of July.

“Looking forward, a group of analysts polled by Reuters expect oil prices to soften in the second half of this year on worries that sluggish economic growth will further cap demand. According to them, macroeconomic weakness would first impact investors’ risk appetite and later start to affect oil demand, which already has been affected by high energy prices,” the DOE monitoring stated.

As of Aug. 2, diesel prices in Metro Manila ranged from P41.70 to P46.20 a liter and gasoline prices from P50.35 to P57.27 a liter.