Photo from Jhay Jalbuna/THEPHILBIZNEWS
It seems there is no stopping the increase of petroleum products because for fourth consecutive week, prices of petroleum products increased again on Tuesday, September 4.
The oil companies announced on Monday that gasoline prices will go up by P0.95 per liter, diesel by P1.20 per liter and kerosene by P0.95 per liter.
The announcement was made by Phoenix Petroleum, PTT Philippines, Eastern Petroleum, Petro Gazz and Pilipinas Shell. They also implemented the price hike at 6 a.m. of September 4.
Other oil companies followed.The local pump prices are mainly influenced by the crude prices in the world market as well as the peso-dollar exchange rate and taxes.
Over the weekend, prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) also increased.
Petron Corp., implemented a P1.95-per-kg increase in LPG effective 12:01 a.m. of September 1. Eastern Petroleum on the other hand implemented a P1.80 per kilo, or P19.80 increase, for an 110-kilogram (kg) LPG cylinder on Sunday morning. While Auto LPG prices also increased by P1.10 per liter. According to Petron, the price adjustments in LPG reflect the international contract price for the month of September.
Meanwhile Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi on Friday warned the public about the emergence of illegally LPG-refilled butane canisters, following the buy-bust operation conducted by the Philippine National Police (PNP)-Cebu City Police Office Station 1 in Barangay T. Padilla public market on August 24.
The Energy Chief said, “LPG-refilled butane canisters are extremely dangerous, especially since butane canisters should only be used once. Refilling these tin canisters with LPG could cause fire and also greatly endangers the lives of our consumers.”
The proliferation of this illegal practice is becoming even more pronounced given that 63,055 LPG-refilled and 150,821 empty butane canisters were confiscated in Cebu from early-2017 until August 2018.