As oil prices hit new price peaks in global trading, the financial debacle of the local oil companies lurches deeper as Malacañang’s price freeze imposition stretches on its second week.

On Friday, crude prices spiked to a new peak of $79 per barrel in the world market, evidently a reversal of what is happening in the domestic oil market where prices are being kept low based October 15, 2009 price level.

In an interview, Flying V chairman Ramon F. Villavicencio indicated that having the price control Executive Order staying longer will drive oil players in deep financial mess – that viability of investing in the industry will be highly questioned, thus, the possibility of deterred future capital flows.

And for the consumers, it would mean a price shock of P4.50 per liter once the Presidential directive is lifted.

“What we fear is that when the EO is lifted, just to get back to where we were before, there will be an increase of P4.50 per liter,” he stressed.

Appealing to the government’s prudent assessment of the situation, Villavicencio indicated the industry’s hopes that the price control may just be there for a short time.

Asked how long the industry can survive with the enforced price reduction, the Flying V chair opined that “one month would be too long.”

He added “we are hoping that this whole thing will only be for a short time. If let’s say, it would be for a month, that would already be long,” he noded.

Although Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita gave word that they would not allow the oil companies to recover whatever losses they may have incurred from the price control mandate, business sentiment swirled that such act of government has been posing a lot of uncertainty.

Meanwhile, the takeover attempts of government on oil installations is viewed as ‘confiscatory in nature’ and one that goes against the tide of industry liberalization that this country has judiciously thought out when the State was in dire financial strait to address the Filipino nation’s needs for such vital energy facilities.

Villavicencio noted they are open to dialogues wherein the government will get a free reign in assessing the impact of EO 839. So that once and for all, they can evaluate for themselves that the oil firms’ claims of huge losses have a solid basis.

The oil industry players put forward several questions on the EO imposition, but the government appeared deaf and dumb as to these concerns.