The Philippine Online Chronicles

As a consequence of the recent spate of civilian unrest in several Arab states, rising oil prices in the international market prompted a number of oil companies operating in the Philippines to increase prices of their petroleum products Tuesday.

The so-called Big Three, composed of Chevron Philippines, Petron Corp. and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum, jacked up prices of gasoline by P1.25 per liter. Diesel and kerosene sold by these firms went up by P1 per liter.

Total (Philippines) Corp. also adjusted its oil price boards, adding up similar figures for gasoline, diesel, and kerosene sold at its filling stations.

Meanwhile, Eastern Petroleum Corp. charged on Monday an additional P2 per liter across all products, as Phoenix Petroleum Philippines, Inc. adjusted diesel prices to P1 per liter and P1.25 for every liter of gasoline.

Petron increased its rates by 12:00 noon, while Chevron and Shell implemented the increase six hours earlier. The latter have increased the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to P1.50 per kilogram.

According to Philippine Star, consumers can expect cooking gas prices to cost P656 per 11-kg cylinder, as most LPG Marketers Association (LPGMA) members have raised or will raise prices by around P1.50 per kg.

"All LPG suppliers will increase their products by P1.50 per kg because the price of LPG increased from USD820 to USD855 per metric ton," the report quoted a statement from LPGMA.

More to come

Department of Energy (DoE) undersecretary Jose Layug, Jr. said that another round of increase is likely to occur in the coming days.

"It can either be another increase this week or next week, depends on the advisory of the oil companies to us," BusinessWorld quoted Layug.

While DoE is yet to receive new price hike advisories from oil firms, Layug announced that consumers are likely to pay an additional P1 for oil products within the week.

The energy department, although denying that there is an oil supply crisis in the country, said that oil price hikes are due to rising petroleum prices in the international market, which fears a supply disruption induced by the political turmoils in some Middle Eastern and Northern African countries.

Stocking up

In preparation for the worst-case scenario, DoE said that the agency has devised a strategy that will enable the country to cope with the situation should oil supplies get affected by the anti-government protests in the said regions.

ABS-CBN reported that DoE aims to increase its current inventory of crude and other petroleum products. According to energy secretary Jose Rene Almendras, a “buffer stock” will be reserved “so that for a month or two, we can go on even if there are no deliveries to the Philippines.”

Almendras also added that this strategy is also being implemented by other countries who stock up oil products which will then be used when the need arose.

Even if the country does not heavily rely on Libya's oil produce, the Philippine government is watching closely the developments in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. These oil-rich countries export to the Philippines some 82 percent of its petroleum needs.

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, recently vowed to produce more oil to make up for the supply reduction from Libya. According to Inquirer, this move energized the peso and other Asian currencies to appreciate in value during Tuesday's trading.

The Philippine Peso closed at 43.435 against the greenback, compared with 43.565 the previous day.