China is likely to raise the price of petroleum products as international oil prices continue to soar, Chinanews.com reported Tuesday.

The weighed-average-price change rate in Brent, Cinta and Dubai hit 10.62 percent as of March 18. China's price adjustment "redline" was at 4 percent.

The international oil price exceeded the "redline" for 22 working days on Tuesday, which meets another prerequisite for China's price adjustment, according to the report.

The international oil price will keep rising, energy economist Lin Boqiang said. Both the recent conflict in Libya and the post-disaster construction work in Japan will drive up the demand.

The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the country's largest oil and gas producer and supplier, ordered its subordinate refineries to increase the gasoline price by 100 yuan ($15.2) a ton as early as March 17, according to some reports.

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Some gas stations in Beijing also increased the price of No 93 gasoline to about 7 yuan a liter.

The country is very likely to increase the oil price, but the extent maybe limited, Lin said.

Han Xiaoping, chief information officer of the energy information website china5e.com, said that the oil price will continue to rise if the government does not readjust it now. Han also pointed out that a relatively prudent increase plan will be implemented, because the price hike may stall growth of the country's gross domestic product.

China's February consumer price index was stable compared to January's figure, so the government may put less consideration into possible pressure from inflation, said Zhang Bin with the Zhuochuang Information Service.

Zhang predicted that the government will raise the price later this month by 250-350 yuan a ton.