Fuel Prices Up for the 4th Straight Week

For the fourth-straight week, oil firms have once again announced an increase to oil product prices effective today.

Oil firms Cleanfuel, Petro Gazz, Seaoil, and Shell in separate announcements said that prices for their diesel will increase by PHP0.70 per liter. The same firms also announced an increase in their gasoline prices by PHP0.75 per liter.

Moreover, oil firms Seaoil and Shell also announced an increase to their kerosene prices also by PHP0.70 per liter.

The main oil players made the announcement with other oil players expected to follow.

Prices in oil products have now been in increasing for four weeks or one month. Causes for the increase include stronger demand from countries such as the United States and China, as their coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation improves and the relaxation of restrictions continue.

Demand for oil products in Europe is also increasing.

However, the continuous rise of COVID-19 cases in Brazil, India, and Japan are also affecting the oil market negatively.

Gasoline prices to this day continues to be higher in comparison to the same period in 2020 when most of the country was placed under the strictest form of quarantine–the Enhanced Community Quarantine or ECQ, where gasoline prices globally also plummeted as demand weakened due to different lockdowns around the world brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. (GFB)