A tricycle driver searches his pocket for bills and coins to pay for fuel at a gasoline station on E. Rodriguez Avenue in Quezon City. (File photo by NIÑO JESUS ORBETA / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — Oil companies are poised to implement another big-time fuel price hike next week with prices expected to climb by P6 to P6.30 per liter while those of gasoline may increase by P1.10 to P1.40 per liter, oil companies and officials confirmed on Friday.
Department of Energy’s Oil Industry Management Bureau director Rino Abad confirmed at Palace news briefing on Friday that, aside from gasoline and diesel, the agency also expects kerosene to go up by more than P2 per liter.
Abad said the increase was due to the decision of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) to slash production output by two million barrels per day ahead of peak winter season to shore up declining global oil prices following the aggressive interest rate hikes of the US Federal Reserve fueled expectations of hefty fuel prices.
The OPEC+ decision to cut oil production strained the already tense relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia, once one of Washington’s staunchest Middle East allies, according to interviews with about a dozen government officials and experts in Washington and the Gulf.
US stand ignored
The White House pushed hard to prevent the Opec output cut, these sources said, because US President Joe Biden wants to keep US gasoline prices from spiking ahead of midterm elections in which his democratic party is struggling to maintain control of the US Congress. Washington also wants to limit Russia’s energy revenue during the Ukraine war.
The United States lobbied OPEC+ for weeks. In recent days, senior US officials from energy, foreign policy and economic teams urged their foreign counterparts to vote against an output cut to on avail. “We expect this [decision] to reverse the trend. Instead of a rollback, there is an indication of an increase next week,” Abad said.
Oil companies are expected announce the increased prices of petroleum products this Tuesday based on the average Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) trading from Oct. 3 to 7. MOPS, the daily average prices of refined petroleum products in Singapore trading, is the regional benchmark used in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, for pricing petroleum products.
In the global front, both the Asian bellwether Dubai crude and the international benchmark Brent crude are trading above the $90 per barrel level as of writing.
Philippine prices of diesel and kerosene have been on the downtrend for five consecutive weeks. Last week, local gasoline prices went up by 40 centavos per liter, diesel by 45 centavos per liter and kerosene by 85 centavos per liter.
Cumulative increases stand at P14.45 per liter for gasoline, P28.95 per liter for diesel and P23.25 per liter for kerosene, based on the Department of Energy’s monitoring.
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