COPW-chairman Raul Concepcion said the increase would likely be effected by the end of this month by the new players and early next month by the major oil firms.
The upcoming increase proceeds from the fact that the oil companies have not increased their LPG prices since July last year, he said.
The Petroleum Institute of the Philippines (PIP) has earlier indicated that prices of LPG may increase this month following a similar rise in the world market.
Concepcion said the Big "3" or the major players can afford to hold back the increase by a week or so because they still have the resources to cover for it. "The LPG being sold by the major players are 40 percent produced locally and 60 percent imported," he said.
According to Concepcion, the competition between the major players and the neophyte oil companies is very intense. Sources said the new oil firms are planning to file a case of "predatory pricing" against the major players.
Last November, a similar suit was filed by the new players against industry leaders Petron Corp., Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. and Caltex Philippines Inc.
According to sources, the new players will wait until next week to see if the major players will indicate plans to increase prices before they file the formal complaint with the Department of Energy.
A similar complaint was filed last year by the LPG Refillers Association, which have accused the "Big Three" of favoring their own LPG dealers over market refillers.
The Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act of 1998 defines predatory pricing as "selling or offering to sell any oil product at a price below the seller’s or offeror’s average variable cost for the purpose of destroying competition, eliminating a competitor or discouraging a potential competitor from entering the market."
Variable cost is defined as costs such as utilities or raw materials, which vary as the output increases or decreases and, average variable cost refers to the sum of all variable costs divided by the number of units of outputs.
The new players are saying that the "Big Three" have been selling their products at prices lower than the real variable costs.