Petron hikes diesel prices; other oil firms seen to follow

MANILA, Philippines - Oil firms yesterday raised diesel prices but rolled back the prices of kerosene, after several weeks of price hikes and last week’s price cut in diesel.

Petron Corp., the country’s biggest oil refiner, made the first announcement of a price adjustment yesterday.

“Petron implemented the following price adjustments value added tax inclusive effective 6 a.m. Dec. 24: P0.15 per liter rollback in kerosene and a P0.10 per liter increase in diesel,” Petron said in its advisory.

With the price hike in diesel, retail prices of the product now range from P41.45 per liter to P45.85 per liter from a range of P41.35 per liter to P45.75 per liter as of Dec. 17, based on the energy department’s latest price monitoring report.

Other petroleum players have yet to issue similar advisories but given that they track movements in the global crude market, they are expected to implement similar adjustments.

Last Dec. 17, oil companies raised gasoline prices but slashed the price of diesel products.

Oil firms announced a P0.40 per liter increase in gasoline and a P0.55 per liter reduction in diesel.

Yesterday’s price adjustment comes amid a price increase in electricity rates starting this month until February due to a staggered December power rate hike of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) as approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), the power regulator.

The power price hike, however, has been halted by the Supreme Court following the issuance of a 60-day temporary restraining order.

The ERC approved a staggered billing scheme to implement the P3.44 per kilowatt-hour increase in the generation charge of Meralco.

The ERC said Meralco may collect the P3.44 per kwh generation charge in three installments: P2 per kwh in December, P1 per kwh in February and P0.44 per kwh in March.

The increase in power rates is due to the month-long maintenance shutdown of the Malampaya deep water gas-to-power project, which supplies natural gas to three power plants in Luzon.