Local petroleum companies raised their prices for the second consecutive week mainly attributed to the unrest in Kazakhstan and the supply outages in Libya.
Meanwhile, power rates in areas covered by the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) franchise will go down by P0.0746 per kilowatt hour (kWh) in January breaking nine straight months of increases.
Meralco said lower generation rates will bring down overall power rates to P9.7027 per kWh from last month’s P9.7773 per kWh. This is equivalent to a decrease of around P15 in the total bill of residential customers consuming 200 kWh monthly.
Meralco said generation charge in January decreased by P0.1081 per kWh to P5.4262 per kWh from last month’s P5.5343 per kWh, on the back of lower costs from power supply agreements (PSAs) and independent power producers (IPPs) that more than offset the higher charges from the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM).
PSA and IPP rates registered reductions of P0.4375 and P0.0543 per kWh, respectively as a result of excess energy deliveries and lower coal prices.
WESM charges increased by P0.8511 per kWh brought about by higher average capacity on outage in the Luzon grid driven by forced and planned outages of major power plants that repeatedly triggered secondary price caps.
Damage from Typhoon Odette and the continued Malampaya gas supply restriction also contributed to the grid’s tight supply condition and WESM prices to shoot up.
Transmission charge for residential customers increased by P0.0728 per kWh, mainly due to higher ancillary service charges but taxes and other charges registered a net reduction of P0.0393 per kWh.
Collection of the Universal Charge-Environmental Charge amounting to P0.0025 per kWh also remains suspended. This month’s rate still reflects the P0.2761 per kWh refund that was ordered by the Energy Regulatory Commission over a period of 24 months or until the P13.9 billion amount is fully refunded.
Meralco’s interim distribution rates comprised of distribution, supply and metering charges, the only bill component paid to the company remained at P1.381 per kWh for 78 months already.
According to the Department of Energy (DOE), the latest average Manila price per liter of gasoline (RON95) is at P64.40, diesel at P51.47 and kerosene, P53.60.
Seaoil increased per liter prices by P0.75 of gasoline, P1.10 of diesel and P0.90 of kerosene.
Meanwhile, Clean Fuel adjusted per liter prices of gasoline by P0.75 and diesel by P1.10.
The DOE is yet to update the year-to-date adjustments on fuel prices for 2022 but noted that for the entire 2021, a net increase of P17.65 per liter was recorded for gasoline, P14.30 per liter for diesel and P11.54 per liter for kerosene.
Reuters reported that as of Friday last week, Brent crude settled at $81.75 a barrel while US West Texas Intermediate crude ended at $78.90 a barrel.
The report quoted analysts’ explanation that one of the factors in the increased global crude prices were the current protests in Kazakhstan after its government removed price caps on butane and propane.
Russian troops were sent to the country to put down the uprising as the protests affected production at Kazakhstan’s top oilfield, Tengiz, as some contractors also disrupted train lines in support of the protests.
Meanwhile, an ongoing pipeline maintenance work in Libya also pulled down oil production in the country to 729,000 barrels per day (bpd) from a high of 1.3 million bpd last year.
Analysts warned that further crude price increase may be felt in the coming weeks as supply additions from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, including allies such as Russia, are not keeping up with demand growth.
Crude inventories in the United States, the world’s top consumer, have fallen for six consecutive weeks. – Jed Macapagal
