Filling stations will have raised fuel prices for Christmas week

Christmas week is here. And together with heavy traffic, motorists will have to face a double whammy as filling stations will raise fuel prices tomorrow, December 20.

Oil companies will impose a PHP 2.90 per liter price bump on diesel, while kerosene and gasoline are up PHP 1.65 and PHP 0.70 per liter, respectively. This ends the consecutive weeks where fuel prices significantly declined.

Oil players such as Shell and CleanFuel will adjust prices effective by 6:00 AM and 4:01 PM, respectively. We should expect other companies to follow suit once they make their own price advisories later in the day.

According to our friends from PH Fuel Watch, the price of Brent crude oil in the global market and the dollar exchange rate trickled up last week, which contributed to this week's oil price hike. Meanwhile, according to Reuters, a surge in global demand for diesel was caused by the cold weather expected towards the end of the year.

With that said, a long queue of vehicles could be expected not just in the expressway toll booths, but also at your nearest filling stations, as most will try to maximize the current fuel prices before the adjustments are made for tomorrow.