3 oil firms raise petroleum prices

AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Local oil companies have again jacked up prices of petroleum products starting Tuesday to reflect the continued uptrend in prices in the global market.

Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Petron Corp. and Seaoil Philippines have raised prices of diesel by 75 centavos per liter, kerosene by 60 centavos a liter, and of regular gasoline by 25 centavos a liter. At the same time, the oil firms have also cut prices of premium gasoline by 45 centavos a liter.

The price adjustments of Pilipinas Shell and Petron took effect on Tuesday while Seaoil is implemented its new pricing on Wednesday (August 29).

This latest round of oil price hikes was met with warnings of a possible “wave of protests” from the multisectoral group Coalition Against Oil Price Increases (CAOPI).

In a statement issued on Tuesday, CAOPI pointed out that the pump prices of petroleum products have already increased by around P8 per liter since the series of oil price hikes set off in the second week of July, following 13 successive price rollbacks.

According to the group’s own monitoring, the net impact of the price adjustments since January this year was an increase of P2.64 per liter for diesel and more than P2 per liter for gasoline.

CAOPI has thus reiterated its demand for the Independent Oil Price Review Committee (IOPRC) to release its findings on prices and excessive profits of oil players. It also called on Congress to act on pending bills that have sought to review, amend or repeal the Oil Deregulation Law.