Oil firms hike prices

AFP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Prices of refined petroleum products increased for the week as a result of a small price rally during last week’s trading.

The Department of Energy (DOE) reported on Monday (Nov. 2) that oil firms have decided to increase gasoline and kerosene prices for the week, as well as LPG prices for the month of November.

For automotive fuel products, Petron, Shell, Caltex, and Seaoil branded gasoline will increase by 25 centavos per liter by 6 a.m. on Tuesday (Nov. 3) while their kerosene products will have
increased by 10 centavos per liter at the same time.

Phoenix Petroleum and PTT Philippines announced higher gasoline prices by 25 centavos per liter from 6 a.m. on Tuesday (Nov. 3).

Oil firms did not announce adjustments in the prices of diesel products.

Industry analysts said the higher prices resulted from a slight price rally last week as oil rig counter Baker Hughes Inc. reported further shrinking in the number of oil rigs in the U.S. The U.S. shale oil boom was largely credited for the oil price crash last year and the lingering weakness in demand versus supply this year.

With U.S. oil rig count dropping by 16 to 578, as per Baker Hughes, a little speculative trading pulled up oil prices for the short term, analysts said. Compared to the peak of 1,609 oil rigs in October 2014,
the year on year count as of the end of October 2015 was down 64 percent, according to estimates.

On household LPG, the brands Solane, Gasul, Petronas became more expensive by P2.95 per kilogram from 6 a.m. on Monday(Nov. 2).

Meanwhile, Liquigaz will raise prices by P2.50 per kilogram from 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday (Nov. 3) and ECGas by P2.90 per kilogram from 6 a.m., also on Tuesday.

The price of oil has continued with its see-saw movements from early 2015, but most oil companies are not complaining. Most of them agree that prices are more “stable” compared to the steep declines in the second half of 2014. With small increments of decline and a price hike now and then, oil companies are expected to recover financially from last year’s experience of having to sell at a loss — by the second half of the year, they have had to sell at low prices even if their inventories were bought at higher prices earlier in the year.  SFM