Oil giants Pilipinas Shell, Petron Corp., and Chevron Philippines followed the lead of independent oil firm Total Tuesday, announcing another round of increases in their pump prices.

The four companies at different times Tuesday implemented price hikes worth P1 for every liter of gasoline and 50 centavos for every liter of diesel and kerosene.

Shell and Chevron (formerly Caltex) enforced their price adjustments at 12:01 a.m.

Although Total gave notice of the fuel price hike as early as 9 p.m. Monday, theirs took effect only at 6 a.m. along with Petron.

Tuesday’s adjustments raised the “Big 3’s” gasoline (unleaded) prices to around P32.70 and diesel prices to around P25.80 per liter. Kerosene currently sells for around P33.70 a liter.

Meanwhile, Total’s pump prices stand at P29.50 for unleaded, P22.95 for diesel, and P34.50 for kerosene.

Shell spokesperson Bobby Kanapi cited “rising product costs” as reason for the price increases.

Local oil companies have increased pump prices twice in less than a week. Last Friday, Shell, Chevron, and Total added 30 centavos to retail prices for diesel.

Consumers experienced the last of what appeared to be weekly fuel price rollbacks last March 11 when diesel and kerosene prices were pulled down by 50 centavos.

But all seemed to have changed after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) bared its plan to cut back on oil production in order to stir up world demand. OPEC wants to boost slumping world crude prices, the Department of Energy (DoE) explained.