PH oil imports surge 11% in 2017 to 97.53 million barrels

Stimulated by rising consumer demand, the country’s oil imports hit a double-digit growth of 11-percent last year to 97.53 million barrels from a leaner 87.24 million barrels in 2016.

Aggregate oil import bill of the country has likewise been up 31.2percent to US$9.892 billion in 2017 from the previous year’s level of US$7.542 billion, which according to the Department of Energy (DOE) had been traced to “combined effects of higher import cost and higher volume of products.”

Based on data of the Oil Industry Management Bureau of the DOE, the top product imports had been diesel with a phenomenal growth of 12.7percent; while gasoline and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) logged import volume hikes of 10.6-percent and 10.2percent, respectively.

For fuel oil which is generally used by industrial end-users, imports had been down by 2.9-percent, according to the energy department.

Further, the DOE reported that ethanol importation also gained traction with a brisk growth of 10.4percent last year to 1.808 million barrels from the 2016 level of 1.638 million barrels.

As assessed, it had been the Philippine independent oil players which posted the higher level of importation, accounting for 75.6-percent of the total volume.

That represented a growth of 14.5-percent to 73.741 million barrels from the previous year’s 64.385 million barrels.

On the other hand, the industry’s conventional “Big 3”, in reference to major players Petron Corporation, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation and Chevron, accounted for the lower import volume of 24.4-percent, with a very moderate climb also of 4.1-percent to 23.789 million barrels from the year-ago level of 22.856 million barrels.

“The local refiners (Petron and Shell) accounted for 14.8-percent of the total product imports, which included blending stocks as against 85.2-percent share by direct importers,” the DOE has emphasized.

In terms of product import mix, diesel still has the highest share of 41.5-percent, followed by gasoline with 18.3-percent in the pie; then LPG with 13.1-percent; and next ones have been kerosene and aviation turbo with 9.5-percent; fuel oil with 7.1-percent in the fraction; while other products registered 10.4-percent share.

The energy department further noted that gasoline import volume had reached 45.7-percent out of the total demand; while for diesel, importation was at 58.9-percent vis-à-vis total demand.

For LPG, which is a main cooking commodity in many Filipino households, the level of imports had been placed at 69.1 percent versus demand. (MMV)