Fuel prices up on jitters

LOCAL oil firms raised prices significantly this week as market jitters drove trading and wildfires in Canadian oil sites and violence in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta added to supply concerns.

Shell and Seaoil said separately they would impose price hikes of P1.20 per liter for gasoline, P1 per liter for diesel and P1.25 per liter for kerosene from 6 a.m. today (Tuesday).

Petron had not issued an advisory as of press time but is expected to implement similar price adjustments.

Phoenix Petroleum, Eastern Petroleum and PTT Philippines said they were increasing gasoline prices by P1.20 per liter and diesel by P1 per liter from  6 a.m. also on Tuesday.

Flying V adjusted its prices by P1.20 per liter for gasoline, P1 for diesel and P1.25 for kerosene at 12:01 a.m. today.

Analysts said traders see an upside on oil prices with a rebalancing pattern in the market after 18 months of sliding prices, considering the recent round of unscheduled production cuts in some exporting countries.

According to oil field services firm Baker Hughes, the number of oil rigs drilling in US fields remained unchanged from the previous week at 318.Riza T. Olchondra