Oil companies passing on to drivers the cost of more expensive ethanol

In the Philippines, the Manila Bulletin reports that oil companies have begun increasing the cost of gasoline at the pump incrementally but will eventually increase the price by 0.017 per liter due to the higher costs of ethanol. The government regulates the 10% ethanol blending mandate and how much of it must come from domestic production, which is significantly more expensive than landed, imported ethanol. The oil companies didn’t want to burden drivers with the shock of a one-time increase so will do it gradually instead. Ethanol blending volumes are set on a quarterly basis by the Department of Energy.