MANILA – The Department of Energy (DOE) has asked consumers to report to the agency any oil retail outlets charging inappropriate petroleum prices following the non-stop oil price hikes for the past nine weeks.
DOE Undersecretary Gerardo Erguiza Jr. stated that agency will not allow retail outlets to take advantage of the ongoing situation in the oil market.
As of March 1, Oil Industry Management Bureau director Rino Abad mentioned that the countrywide prices of gasoline range from PHP60 to PHP83 per liter, PHP52 to PHP65 per liter for diesel, and PHP61 to PHP68 per liter for kerosene.
According to Erguiza, retail price of diesel increased from PHP37.59 per liter in March 2019 to PHP54.20 in end-February 2022, or an increment of PHP16.61 per liter in nearly three years.
Meanwhile, gasoline prices increased from PHP43.39 per liter to PHP69.28 per liter within the same period.
Dubai crude was priced at USD72.83 per barrel in March 2019. As of February 28 of this year, it had increased to USD96.89 per barrel.
“As the pandemic is slowly improving, economic activities surge resulting to (the) utilization of more energy. The transportation was most hit and the demand for oil products has significantly increased,” Erguiza said.
The crisis between Russia and Ukraine, he added, aggregated the already tight supply of oil in the world market.
The Philippines does not import crude oil directly from Russia, but rather from Asian countries such as China, South Korea, and Japan, which source from Russia.
According to DOE projection, local oil prices would likely hit PHP68.70 per liter for diesel and gasoline prices will reach PHP78.33 per liter once Asian oil price benchmark Dubai crude reaches USD120 per barrel.
