Oil Prices Hit All-time High in Cambodia

Oil prices in Cambodia hit the highest of all time on Friday, with a liter of premium gasoline going for 1.45 U.S. dollars at all petrol stations in the capital.

The price is the highest ever if compared with the peak price of 1.41 U.S. dollars a liter in 2008 and once again in last March.

Bin May Mialia, Commercial Manager for Thai-based PTT Oil Company in Phnom Penh, said Friday that the latest spike in oil price on international market resulted from continuing political troubles in the Middle East, economic recession in Europe and U.S. dollar currency depreciation.

"Just within the last two weeks, oil price in Cambodia has increased by 4.5 percent," he said. "Oil price hike in Cambodia is in line with the globally soaring oil prices. We don't have our own produced oil, so we totally import it from foreign countries."

Officials at the Ministry of Finance could not be reached for comments on Friday. But Finance Minister Keat Chhon said last year that the oil price increase affected everyone and businesses in the country and recommended people to tighten the purse strings and make maximum use of oil they purchased.

On Friday, a barrel (159 liters) of crude oil costs above 97 U. S. dollars in the international market, up from 95 U.S. dollars in January.

Cambodia has completely purchased petroleum from Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand. Last year, this Southeast Asian nation spent about 1.62 billion U.S. dollars on some 1.65 million tons of petroleum, according to a report of the Commerce Ministry.

In December last year, Cambodian Petrochemical Company and Sinomach China Perfect Machinery Industry Corp unveiled a 2.3 billion U.S. dollar project to build the first oil refinery in Cambodia and the construction is expected to be completed at the end of 2015.