The Press Release below was issued on March 4, 2011 by Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. in an effort to address questions raised about why prices are increasing based on global oil prices when they still have inventory of crude bought at a lower price.
To summarize the article below the answers are:
1. To ensure price transparency - it is the norm in open markets in other countries as well
2. In response to market competition (i.e. refiners vs importers)
In addition, crude is bought on a continuous basis, and so while the crude bought at a lower price 3 months ago is being sold at a higher price now, say a month from now when the oil prices go down, the crude bought at a higher price today will then be sold at a loss by the oil companies.
Anyway, onto the article. It explains it in more details. I encourage you to remove your bias for a second and try to read objectively and understand...
