Fuel prices hike after more than a month

MANILA: Just a little over 24 hours after Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed to cut back on the production of oil, fuel companies in the Philippines released an advisory that price of gasoline and diesel will go up today, Tuesday.

Shell, Caltex, Petro Gazz, Phoenix Petroleum, and PTT Philippines have all announced that today, the price of diesel will go up by P 0.15 per liter while gasoline will go up by P0.55 per liter.

Kerosene from Caltex and Shell, on the other hand, will drop today by P0.20 per liter.

This is the first time price of fuel will go up since it started going down in early March amid a combination of reduced public demand and oversupply by both Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Both countries, in agreement with members of OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) and OPEC+ will cut production of oil by at least 9.7 million barrels per day starting May and June 2020, then down to 7.7 million barrels from July to December, before bottoming out at 5.8 million barrels a day between January 2021 to April 2022.

This is to allow the price of oil to stabilize while also consuming the current oversupply which could hit an estimated 2.1 billion barrels by year’s end.

Also read: Fuel prices go down for 4th time in March