Fuel prices hiked Tuesday on Iraq concerns

Oil companies raised pump prices Tuesday amid the worsening sectarian conflict in Iraq, a major exporter of crude oil.

MANILA, Philippines–Oil companies raised pump prices Tuesday amid the worsening sectarian conflict in Iraq, a major exporter of crude oil.

Starting at 6 a.m., Seaoil, Phoenix Petroleum, Pilipinas Shell, Total and Petron raised the prices of gasoline and diesel by 20 centavos and 30 centavos per liter, respectively.

Seaoil, Shell and Petron also raised the price of kerosene by 55 centavos per liter.

Earlier, Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla said in an interview that market forces were being affected by the events in Iraq.

Late on Sunday, Sunni Islamic militants took over the town of Tal Afar, which could serve as a corridor to Syria.

The takeover comes a week after militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, captured Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, and Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit. The Sunnis claim to have killed hundreds of Shiite members of Iraq’s security forces in areas they captured last week.

It is feared there might be Shiite reprisal attacks against Sunni Arab civilians.