MANILA, Philippines?Local oil companies raised prices of gasoline, diesel and kerosene by P1 a liter beginning Tuesday to reflect the increasing prices of petroleum products in the international market.

Seaoil Philippines was the first to announce its oil price increase at 10 p.m. on Monday. This was followed by Chevron (formerly Caltex), Total Philippines, Petron Corp. and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., all of which made their respective announcements on the day of the oil price hike itself.

The companies based their price hike on the average oil price last week compared to that of the previous week.

On a month-to-month basis, data from the Department of Energy had shown that the price of regional benchmark Dubai crude was still lower at $73 a barrel as of June 7, compared to the $77-a-barrel average in May.

The price of unleaded gasoline based on the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) benchmark also dipped to an average of $81 a barrel in the first seven days of the month, from the previous month?s average of $85 a barrel.

Similarly, MOPS-based diesel prices dropped to $85 a barrel in the June 1-7 period, compared to $89 a barrel in May.