Pump prices, down anew; LPG up

MANILA, Philippines — Oil companies are slashing anew pump prices this week, while retailers are hiking prices of cooking gas this month.

In separate advisories yesterday, oil firms said they would cut gasoline prices by P1.50 per liter, diesel by P1.30 per liter and kerosene by P1.40 per liter.

The adjustments will take effect at 6 a.m. today for most companies, except for Caltex and Cleanfuel, which implemented the adjustments at 12:01 a.m.

This week’s price adjustments, which reflect the movement in the international oil market, extend the decline in diesel prices to a third consecutive week and gasoline and kerosene to a second straight week.

Last week, gasoline prices decreased by P1.40 per liter, diesel by P0.70 per liter, and kerosene by P0.20 per liter.

These adjustments resulted in a year-to-date net decrease of P3.05 per liter for diesel and P3.55 per liter for kerosene, data from the Department of Energy (DOE) showed.

Gasoline, on the other hand, has a year-to-date net increase of P7.55 per liter.

Meanwhile, retailers of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) are hiking prices this May following two months of reductions.

Petron increased yesterday LPG prices by P0.85 per kilogram and its autoLPG prices by P0.48 per liter.

“These reflect the international contract price of LPG for the month of May,” the company said.

Price of Solane-branded LPG, meanwhile, went up by P0.82 per kilogram.

Last month, Petron slashed the price of its LPG by P9.20 per kilogram, while Solane LPG price dropped by P9.18 per kilogram.

Prices of 11-kilogram household LPG ranged from P818 to P990 based on the DOE’s price monitoring in Metro Manila from April 1 to 14.