Fuel suppliers are expected to raise prices next week due to soaring oil prices in international markets, a report said yesterday.
The duopoly currently dominating the nation's fuel market, the state-run Chinese Petroleum Corp (
Oil prices spiked to a six-month high in New York on Tuesday as escalating Israeli-Palestinian violence prompted a threat by Iran and Iraq to halt oil exports to the US.
The two companies would have to increase their gasoline and diesel prices by NT$1 per liter in order to break even.
But fierce competition between the two rivals may force them to limit the anticipated price hike to NT$0.5 a liter.
Currently, state-run Chinese Petroleum controls some 75 percent of the nation's petroleum industry, with the rest taken by rival Formosa Petrochemical.
Local media said the two suppliers would be forced to raise prices as early as next week if international oil prices failed to ease to below US$26 a barrel.
A barrel of benchmark light sweet crude leapt US$0.83 to US$27.70 on Tuesday, the highest since Sept. 18 when prices spiked in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. In London, a barrel of reference Brent North Sea crude for May delivery surged to US$26.88 dollars a barrel from US$25.92 dollars.
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