MANILA. As world oil prices hit a record $90 per barrel, local oil firms decided to raise pump prices of gasoline, diesel and kerosene by 50 centavos a liter and liquefied petroleum gas prices by 56 centavos a kilogram, inclusive of the 12-percent value-added tax.

Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. started the round of price hikes at 12:01 a.m. yesterday, followed by Petron Corp. and Total Phil. at 6 a.m. and Chevron Phil. at noon.

Flying V and Eastern Petroleum Corp. announced their increased prices today at 12.01 a.m. and 6 a.m., respectively. Seaoil Phil. will be implementing its own increases at 6 a.m. tomorrow.

Petron said the increase in the price of the regional benchmark Dubai crude in September was equivalent to a P1.85 per liter increase at the pump.

It said that since September price movements now totaled P1.34 a liter for gasoline and P1.78 a liter for diesel and kerosene, not including the 12-percent VAT.

The company said it has so far increased LPG prices by P3 a kilogram, exclusive of VAT. This was enough to cover the change in the international contract price of LPG this month, Petron said.

The international contract price of LPG skyrocketed to $652.50 per metric ton (MT) this month, surpassing the peak price of $625.50 per MT recorded in February 2006.

In September, the LPG contract price was placed at only $570 per MT.

The latest fuel price hike was the 14th for the year for gasoline for a total of P7.50 a liter and the 11th for diesel and kerosene for a total of P5.50 a liter.

Since the start of 2007, LPG prices have risen 10 times for a total of P6.16 a kg, but have also gone down seven times for a total of P3.36 a kg, including VAT.

The latest round of price hikes brought the price of premium unleaded gasoline to between P41.07 and P43.77 a liter, diesel to between P34.60 and P37.12 a liter, kerosene to between P38.15 and P42.30 a liter, and 11-kg LPG cylinders to between P498.92 and P551.43.