• CHERYL G. CRUZ
The pump prices of petroleum products will increase for the third straight week as fresh hostilities erupted in the Middle East.
Oil companies announced over the weekend that diesel will increase by P3.50 to P4.80 per liter, gasoline by P0.90 to P1.30/L, and kerosene by P2.20 to P4.30/L.
Exact adjustments will be known today, July 13, with the price movements usually implemented every Tuesday.
Jetti Petroleum president Leo Bellas, in a Philippine News Agency report July 10, said the jump in oil prices in the international market was due to “Iranian strikes directly targeting vessels attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz outside its officially-approved route, the ensuing retaliatory strikes by the US following the Iran attacks, and revocation by the US of sanctions relief for Iranian oil exports”.
There is renewed fears of supply disruption after the US launched strikes on Iran, and the latter’s counterstrikes on US infrastructures, he added.
“The military strikes in the Middle East continue to expose the ongoing risk to supply, and the latest escalation in the US-Iran war has dimmed the prospect of having a lasting peace deal,” Bellas added. | CGC
