Oil price hike seen on election week — DOE

After a round of rollbacks, motorists should brace for a big-time increase in the pump prices of petroleum products during election week, the Department of Energy (DOE) said Friday.

“Medyo may kalakihan ang increase na mangyayari next week,” DOE-Oil Industry Management Bureau Director Rino Abad told Dobol B TV.

(The price increase next week will be quite high.)

Meanwhile, an oil industry source told GMA News Online that based on the May 2 to 5 trading, the price per liter of both diesel and gasoline may go up by P3.90 to P4.20.

Abad explained that recent events such as the European Commission’s formal proposal for the bloc to ban the importation of Russian oil and the United States plan to repurchase 60 million of crude oil to refill its strategic petroleum reserve “rattled the market” which caused global prices to increase.

Fuel firms usually announce price adjustments every Monday, to be implemented the following day.

Effective May 3, oil companies decreased the price of gasoline by P0.65 per liter and diesel by P1.15 per liter, bringing the year-to-date adjustments to stand at a net increase of P17.80 per liter for gasoline and P30.30 per liter for diesel. —VBL, GMA News