With the extended stay-at-home order on most Filipino homes, the P5.80 per kilogram increase in the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas will come as a thread of bad news especially at this when families are hard up to tide things over.
As announced by oil companies, the pick-up price of LPG fuel will rise by as much as P63.80 (inclusive of Value-Added Tax) for the standard 11-kilogram cylinder, which is the standard size used by households for cooking.
LPG industry players that have announced price adjustments were Petron Corp. for its Gasul product line; Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc. for its Super LPG; and Isla Petroleum and Gas Corporation for its Solane brand – all effective yesterday.
Petron and Phoenix Petroleum also announced that their autoLPG prices for vehicles will go up by P3.25 per liter effective yesterday.
The swings in LPG prices in the domestic market follow the movement of international contract prices as anchored with Saudi Aramco, the regarded benchmark for the Asian market.
For the Filipino households, LPG is a commodity that they are heavily relying on at this time since most have been resorting to home cooking because of the enhanced community quarantine implemented by the government as a defense against unrestrained spread of the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, for the other fuel products at Philippine pumps, it is anticipated that gasoline prices will increase by P0.50 to P0.65 per liter on Tuesday, May 5, while diesel prices may still be on rollback by a marginal P0.15 to P0.25 per liter.
For kerosene products, the oil firms estimated a price hike of P0.55 to P0.65 per liter that will also be enforced by Tuesday, as has been the routine of the industry on price adjustments.
The oil companies have noted that the calculated cost movements were still based on the outcome of four-day trading in the world market and may still change depending on the result of yesterday’s trading.
The price crash had turned to be a worrying trend for oil companies – not just in the Philippines but globally, but the industry players are fervidly hoping for recovery once the pandemic wanes. (Myrna Velasco)