Oil Price Hike, Twice The Rise: An Economical Crisis Brought Upon War


 

by: Mycah A. Delacura

          Times have changed and as much as the humans progressed, there have also been difficulties that were brought upon by their own inefficiencies. Currently across the continents, prices of crude oil and gas keeps on rising into leaps and bounds, still without further notice when the world economy will cease to a normal state. Oil prices rose on Thursday amid confusion over whether major producers would help to plug a gap in supplies from Russia, the recent spikes in oil prices have been due to the impact of Russia's invasion of the neighboring Ukraine on an already tight global crude supply. Effectively on Tuesday, March 15 2022, the oil companies implemented a price increase in domestic oil products. Gasoline has increased by P7.10-P7.20 per liter, and diesel by P12.00. In an interview on rappler with Department of Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi, the average for the past two trading days reached $104.79 per barrel. This is lower than last week’s average of $122.61 per barrel, which had caused the massive hike in local pump prices on Tuesday, March 15. He had also added in his own statement, according to Secretary Cusi, " If this trend ranging from $104 to $105 per barrel continues, we could experience a rollback in prices next week. For gasoline, it could be more than P5, and for diesel, it could go down by P12 or more15 March 2022. " was what he said.

 

With the current war and territorial strife between Russia and Ukraine, the prices of oil are still skyrocketing and even if it would cool down soon, another price hike may presume again due to the unending politics and the presently hostile relationship between the two countries. Oil price hike in itself is already an imbalance and it also has a lot of disadvantages not only to the involved countries in a dispute, but also to the other countries all over the world due to the hefty expenses being spent every day on crude oil and other oil products that people use in their daily lives. With such a continuous rise without the circulation of money in our economy, not only the nation but also people will suffer from the ever-changing costs of oil and money expenditure that are affecting everyone's own budget. Aside from the general populace, an increase in the price of crude oil can lead to a steep fall in the current accounts which further leads to worsening the treasury budgets and the savings and investments of the country. These imbalances remain to worsen because of the increase in crude oil prices and push the economy to a larger crisis. For example, India right now, being a major oil importer suffers from all these threats. Developing countries are affected more than developed countries due to the absence of advanced technology.

 

 

Shelving the disadvantages aside, there are also benefits that this increase in oil prices has brought to our country's economical value. As one of the main producers of oil, with the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and Russia, the value of all other exported products with oil has risen and many supplies have been successfully exported outside earning more income for our country's economy despite the turbulent state of cash flow. Since most oil resources are being exported outside, now with high oil prices (and high gasoline prices), the majority of Filipino people will be able to drive less, stay closer to home for shopping, and combine various errands to be more efficient, and so on. Likewise, they will spend less on oil-derived products whose prices rise with higher oil prices, as long as it is not necessarily needed.

 

 

During these times of upheaval where dire support is needed, the world has indeed reaped a lot of advantages as well as disadvantages from the ongoing oil price hike, not just within the two warring states but also outside the nearby countries of Asia and the middle east. However, as far as these things could go, I believe it is now more necessary to end the war and prevent more deaths and destruction, as the suffering of people from the oil price hike and the damages that the war between Ukraine and Russia had caused isn't by all means just a little bit as it had also become another issue that the world is currently facing along with the crisis of oil price hike. As for when the oil prices would finally go back to normal, only when the conflict between the two countries and their use of firearms would cease for the sake of resolving things peacefully will the immense use of the limited production of oil resources and the rise of oil prices come to a halt.

Post a Comment

Previous Post Next Post