Oil companies will hike pump prices for the fifth consecutive week.
They announced Monday that gasoline prices will go up by P0.60 per liter and diesel by P0.10 per liter. Meanwhile, kerosene prices will go down by P0.05 per liter.
The price adjustment takes effect at 6 a.m. of Tuesday, July 6, the Pilipinas Shell, Seaoil, Caltex, PetroGazz, PTT Philippines and Phoenix Petroleum announced.
The year-to-date price adjustments stand at a total net increase of P12.35 per liter for gasoline and P10 per liter for diesel.
Oil firms adjust their pump prices weekly to reflect movements in the world oil market.
Based on DOE (Department of Energy) monitoring, international oil prices climbed to their highest since October 2018 on expectations that demand growth will exceed supply.
Reports disclosed that OPEC+ is currently holding crude production at 6.2 million barrels per day(MMB/D), below October 2018 levels and intends to taper this output cut to 5.76 MMB/D in July.
“The global market demand is estimated at 1.7 million barrels per day in the third quarter. OPEC + is still meeting if they will return 400,000 barrels per day out of the 5.9 million barrels per day of supply that was restricted. Slowly, they will return it but for now discussions stand at 400,000 only,” said DOE Oil Industry Management Bureau Director Rino Abad.
The upward trend in local pump prices are likely to remain until supply becomes stable, added Abad.