Consumers will welcome the New Year with a fresh oil price increase this week ranging from P0.25 to P0.45 per liter, following a very marginal financial breather last week.
Oil companies estimated that gasoline prices will rise by P0.35 to P0.45 per liter while diesel will be up by P0.25 to P0.30 per liter.
Kerosene, which is the base for aviation fuel, will also go up by P0.35 to P0.45 per liter, the oil firms said.
The domestic petroleum companies will increase prices Tuesday and it will be the first adjustments this year.
With the series of price increases especially in the fourth quarter of 2020, a monitoring report of the Department of Energy (DoE) showed that the price reductions accruing in the initial months had practically been eroded.
After the last adjustment on Dec. 29, the net decrease in gasoline prices ended up at very negligible P1.97 per liter, entailing then that the price of that particular commodity already hovered close to the pre-pandemic level.
For diesel products, the net decrease was at a heftier P5.96 per liter, while kerosene which was considerably the hard hit industry sub-segment, was still at a sizeable P9.49 per liter.
Given the new wave of travel restrictions in Europe, market analysts noted that Asian markets could be in for a relatively robust market performance in the initial quarter of 2021, although with some caution given the uncalculated impact yet of the new COVID-19 strain.
There are also expectations that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its ally-producers may re-consider their decision on production hike in view also of the virus mutation that has started overwhelming many countries. The OPEC+ alliance will meet on Jan. 4. (Myrna M. Velasco)