Oil Price

Prices & Profits
By Marlon Tan
28 July 2008 - 10:04

The upward movements in local prices of petroleum products have again brought the spotlight on the alleged “excessive” profits of the major oil companies operating in the country.

Suddenly, everyone and his brother have began vilifying the major oil companies (in particular, Petron and Shell) for their excessive profits.

These accusations have ranged from Congressman Teddy Casiño’s (quoting Ibon Foundation’s “study”) allegations that the oil companies have “overpriced” their products by PHP 12 per liter; to Congressman Eduardo Gullas’ accusation that Petron and Shell have cumulatively earned Php66.87 billion in the 10 years under a deregulated environment, broken down into Php33.59 billion for Petron and Php35.18 billion for Shell; to Congressman Roilo Golez’s demand that the oil companies’ books be audited by the Commission on Audit.
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