Oil companies implemented another round of price hike after last week’s rollback
attributed to the effects of a missile attack on an oil distribution facility in Saudi Arabia.
According to the Department of Energy (DOE), as of March 24, the latest average Manila price per liter of gasoline (RON95) stood at P71.20, diesel at P64 and kerosene at P66.41.
Caltex and Seaoil increased per liter prices by P3.40 for gasoline; P8.65, diesel and; P9.40, kerosene.
Clean Fuel and PTT adjusted per liter prices upward by P3.40 for gasoline and P8.65 for diesel.
The DOE said as of March 22, year-to-date adjustments of petroleum products totaled to a net increase of P14.90 per liter for gasoline, P19.20 per liter for diesel and P16.35 per liter for kerosene.
Reuters reported that as of Friday last week, Brent crude settled at $120.65 a barrel as US West Texas Intermediate ended at $113.90 per barrel.
The report said Yemen’s Houthis movement launched attacks on Saudi energy facilities on Friday.
Saudi Arabia said it will not hold responsibility for any shortage of oil supplies in global markets caused by the incident.
Analysts warned of more price increases should the attacks continue as stockpiles have dropped to their lowest since 2014.
Other developments being watch are the planned release of oil by the US from its strategic petroleum reserve as well as Kazakhstan’s partial resumption of crude deliveries and the European Union’s holding off of talks on imposing an embargo on Russian energy products.
Meanwhile, the Department of Energy (DOE) said 65.32 megawatts (MW) of power was saved in the entire country during the one-hour switch-off of non-essential lights during the Earth Hour last Saturday. Luzon saved 35.26 MW; Visayas, 14.76 MW and 15.3 MW from Mindanao.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) declared a yellow alert in the Luzon Grid from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. last Saturday that coincided with the Earth Hour.
NGCP declared it as operating requirement in the grid for the said period was at P9,998 MW against an available capacity of only 10,487 MW as a total of 2,834 MW worth of power supply became unavailable due to forced plant outages and derations.
Yellow alerts are issued when the level of power reserve in the grid is low but power interruptions are not yet imminent.
DOE Secretary Alfonso Cusi said some power plants deliberately derate their units on weekends for them to conduct minor maintenance works without the need to shut down power plants, adding that low water levels during summer also forces hydro plants to be unavailable
“Last Saturday evening, however, the largest plant in the grid also went offline resulting to a yellow alert. It can be noted though, that there is still enough capacity in the system as it did not result to any power interruption,” Cusi said.
The DOE said as of Sunday, most of the derated plants were back to normal and the largest plant on outage has returned to service.
