MANILA -Motorists have yet to get a reprieve from weeks of fuel price hikes, as local oil companies announced price increases of as much as P4 per liter—the highest such increase this year—effective on Tuesday, Aug. 8.
In separate advisories, the oil firms said they would increase the price of diesel by P4 per liter and gasoline by 50 centavos per liter. The price of kerosene likewise rose by P2.75 per liter.
Seaoil and Shell will implement the price adjustments by 6 a.m. on Tuesday, followed by CleanFuel at 4:01 p.m.
This is the second consecutive week that hikes in the pump prices of petroleum products breached the P3 mark.
According to Rino Abad, director of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oil Industry Management Bureau, this was due to output cuts in Saudi Arabia despite interest rate hikes announced by the US and European Central Bank.
Saudi Arabia had announced that there would be a decline on crude production by 1 million barrels per day (b/d), resulting in a two-year low of 9 million b/d.
Last week, oil firms implemented an increase in the price of gasoline by P2.10 per liter, diesel by P3.50 per liter and kerosene by P3.25 per liter.
This resulted in a year-to-date net decrease of 10 centavos per liter for kerosene, a net increase of P11 per liter for gasoline, and P3.10 per liter for diesel, the DOE said.
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