Oil prices up Tuesday

MANILA, Philippines — Petroleum companies have implemented minimal price increases on fuel products today due to the weakening of the peso against the dollar.

The price hike came after two successive weeks of price rollbacks.

Gasoline prices were raised by P0.20 per liter, diesel prices by P0.45 and kerosene also by P0.45 per liter.

Caltex, Eastern Petroleum, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc., PTT Philippines Corp., Seaoil Philippines Inc. and Total Philippines Corp. implemented their respective price adjustments at 6 a.m.

Flying V, Petron Corp. and UniOil Petroleum Philippines Inc. have yet to announce their respective price changes as of this writing.

Crude prices in the international market trended lower during the last trading week.

Oil prices only went up last Tuesday due to bigger than expected decline in US crude inventories, but fell for the rest of the week on a host of news, including rising supplies from the US, stronger dollar and indications that Saudi Arabia and Russia – two of the largest oil producers in the world – will ease production cuts and start to increase output.

Contributing to the increase in fuel prices was the peso’s weakness last week. The peso breached the P53:$1 level, ending the shortened week at P53.23:$1, its weakest in 12 years when it closed at P53.55:$1 on June 29, 2006.

In a statement, consumer group Laban Konsyumer Inc. (LKI) is pressing for the unbundling of fuel prices despite objections from oil players.

“As consumers, we need to be informed whether the market behavior and retail prices of fuel products are in order and in compliance with the law,” LKI president Victor Dimagiba said.

The consumer group has observed that prices are adjusted upward or downward weekly, in similar or identical amounts, and that service stations of the oil companies and the new players are selling diesel and other products at the same amount per liter in a specific trading area.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is working on a department circular requiring oil companies to provide a weekly notice of price adjustments (decrease, increase or no adjustment) alongside with the computation of their products’ components based on the elements involved in the international price movement, biofuels cost and capital/operational cost recovery.

The policy will also require the oil companies/bulk suppliers and retail outlets to submit baseline data every yearend for the unbundling of their base price and to comply as well with the mandatory price display board.