Pump price hike seen next week

After a round of rollback, pump prices are expected to go up big-time next week.

Citing Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) and foreign exchange averages in the past five days, an oil industry source said that diesel prices might increase by P4.00 to P4.50 per liter while gasoline prices might go up by P2.50 to P3.00 per liter.

“Diesel strengthened this week as persistent supply constraints continued to outweigh improving availability of replacement barrels,” the source said.

“Renewed hostilities in the Middle East have buoyed global gasoline price benchmarks, despite a loosening of regional balances due to a rise in outflows from India and China,” the source added.

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

This week, effective August 11, oil companies rolled back the pump prices of gasoline by P4.70 to P5.00 per liter, diesel by P4.30 to P5.00 per liter, and kerosene by P4.88 to P4.90 per liter.

The latest price adjustments, the 32nd movement for this year, resulted in a total net increase of P51.32 per liter for gasoline, P52.85 per liter for diesel, and P45.64 per liter for kerosene. —VAL, GMA News