Diesel price rollback set Tuesday, but less than 10% of hikes so far this year

Motorists will get a temporary reprieve from the continuous hikes of pump prices of petroleum products, as firms are set to implement a rollback this week, albeit only less than 10% of the increases so far this year.

In separate advisories, Chevron Philippines Inc. (Caltex), Flying V, Petron Corp., Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. said they will roll back prices per liter of diesel by P3.00, and kerosene by P3.40. There are no adjustments for gasoline.

Cleanfuel, and Petro Gazz, Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc., and PTT Philippines Corp. will implement the same adjustment for diesel. They do not carry kerosene products.

The changes will take effect at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, July 5, for all the firms, except for Cleanfuel which will adjust prices at 8:01 a.m. and Caltex at 12:01 a.m. the same day. Other companies have yet to make similar announcements.

The latest rollback comes after four straight weeks of increases for gasoline, and five straight weeks for both diesel and kerosene.

It is less than 10% of the year-to-date increases so far, as data from the energy department show a net increase of P30.00 per liter for gasoline, P45.90 per liter for diesel, and P39.75 per liter for kerosene as of June 28, 2022.

Monitoring of the Department of Energy (DOE) show that prices in Metro Manila ranged from P76.45 per liter (Caloocan City) to P98.40 per liter (Muntinlupa City) for gasoline; from P83.20 per liter (Quezon City) to P98.00 per liter (Pasay City) for diesel; and from P89.74 per liter (Manila) to P99.14 per liter (Taguig City) for kerosene as of June 30, 2022.

Energy Undersecretary Gerardo Erguiza Jr. earlier said pump prices could hit P100 per liter should the weekly increases continue, due to a mix of factors including the global demand and the geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine. —KG, GMA News