Oil firms hike fuel prices by up to P2.50/liter effective Sept 19

MANILA  -After two and a half months, motorists are still expected to reel from increases in the pump prices of petroleum products, as local oil companies announced that prices will again climb by more than P2 per liter on Tuesday, Sept. 19.

In separate advisories, the oil firms said they would hike the prices of gasoline by P2 per liter and diesel by P2.50 per liter. The price of kerosene will likewise increase by P2 per liter.

This marks the 11th consecutive week of increases for diesel and kerosene, and the 10th for gasoline.

Caltex will implement the price adjustments at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, followed by Shell at 6 a.m., and CleanFuel at 4:01 p.m.

Rino Abad, director of the Department of Energy (DOE) Oil Industry Management Bureau, explained that this was still due mainly to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (Opec) decision to extend voluntary production cuts until December this year.

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“Practically speaking, they will decide by December if they will continue the production cuts. We won’t know until January next year if they will change this,” Abad said.

Last week, the price of diesel climbed by 40 centavos per liter, while gasoline and kerosene prices rose by 20 centavos per liter.

This resulted in a year-to-date net increase of P15.50 per liter for gasoline, P11.10 per liter for diesel, and P7.94 per liter for kerosene.

DOE data show that prevailing retail pump prices in Metro Manila ranged from P60 per liter to P88.15 per liter as of Sept. 14.