Oil firms announced on Monday a price adjustment in petroleum products effective Tuesday morning.
They said diesel price would go up by P0.20 per liter, while gasoline prices will go down by P0.20 per liter. There is no movement for kerosene.
The price adjustment was announced by Seaoil, Cleanfuel, Pilipinas Shell, PTT Philippines, Phoenix Petroleum and Caltex Philippines.
Except for Cleanfuel, the oil firms will implement the new prices at 6 a.m. of May 18.
Other oil firms are expected to follow suit.
The Department of Energy (DOE) earlier reported that the country’s net oil import bill dropped to $5.932 billion last year from $11 billion in 2019 brought about by the pandemic.
Total volume of petroleum products imported last year reached 136.05 billion liters, 21.4 percent down from 173.2 billion liters in 2019.
The Philippines imported 32.9 billion liters of crude and 103.1 billion liters of finished products in 2020.
Imports of crude dropped by 45.7 percent following the decision of Petron Corp. and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. to shut down their respective refineries in Bataan and Batangas provinces.
Imports of finished products fell 8.3 percent year-on-year.
Cost of total imports also declined 46.2 percent to $6.372 billion from $11.839 billion in 2019.
Total export earnings dropped 42.5 percent to 10,435 million liters equivalent to $439.4 million in 2020 from 12,669 million liters in 2019 worth $763.6 million.
Of the total petroleum exports last year, 7.9 billion liters were products and 2.5 billion liters in crude.
Image credits: Alysa Salen