CONSUMERS may have to brace for another round of oil price increases this week, which could bring the price of gasoline close to P60 a liter in Metro Manila after world oil prices soared above $111 a barrel on Friday.
The price of the benchmark Dubai crude fetched between $111 and $115 a barrel on April 4 to 7, up from below $110 the previous week.
Based on the industry’s rule of thumb, domestic pump prices go up P1 a liter for every 3-dollar increase in the price of a barrel of crude, or about P0.33 a liter for every dollar increase.
The $5-a-barrel jump in crude prices in just one week could translate to an increase of around P1.50 a liter at the pump.
Gasoline in Metro Manila is now retailing at P52.10 to P58.12 a liter, and diesel at P44.95 to P47.50.
The prices of petroleum products have risen 11 times since the start of the year, adding P7.50 to a liter of gasoline and P7.70 to a liter of diesel.
“The increases in pump prices will persist as conflicts escalate in Libya and the Middle East, consumption for fuel in China increases, the US economy improves, and the uncertainties in demand for rehabilitation efforts in Japan continue,” the Energy Department said in an advisory early this week.
Surging oil and food prices have stoked inflationary concerns for governments worldwide due to their potential adverse impact on economic growth.
“Oil prices are at a point where we could begin to see demand destruction,” Mike Wittner, head of commodities research at Societe Generale, told the Reuters news agency.
“It already looks like the United States may just be showing some signs of demand destruction. The United States is always the country where you see the impact the most because there are no subsidies and hardly any tax burden.”
Unrest in the Arab world had added premiums of $20 to $25 to oil prices since the toppling of the regimes in Tunisia and Egypt in the last few months, Wittner said.
The International Monetary Fund on Thursday said the global economy was entering a period of scarcer oil, adding that tighter fundamentals could cause price spikes rivaling the 2008 run-up that drove oil to nearly $150 a barrel. –Alena Mae S. Flores, Manila Standard Today
World Day for Safety and Health at Work
“Safety and health at work every day!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar to carry out the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry recommendations against serious violations of Forced Labour and Freedom of Association protocols.
Accept National Unity Government
(NUG) of Myanmar.
Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands #Distancing #TakePicturesVideos
Monthly Observances:
March – Women’s Role in History Month
April – Month of Planet Earth
Weekly Observances:
Last Week of March: Protection and Gender Fair Treatment of the Girl Child Week
Last Week of April – World Immunization Week
Daily Observances:
Mar 25 – International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transallantic Slave Trade
Mar 27– Earth Hour
Apr 21 – Civil Service Day
Apr 22 – World Earth Day
Apr 28 – World Day for Safety and Health at Work
