MANILA: The country’s oil import bill in the first half fell by almost 29% to $3.39 billion as the cost of shipping of crude and petroleum products dropped, allowing oil companies to take in bigger volumes.
“This was attributed to lower import cost (for both crude and petroleum products) although petroleum product import volume increased,” the Department of Energy (DoE) said in its latest oil supply and demand report.
Finished products accounted for 57.6% of the total oil import cost, while crude oil made up 42.4%, data show.
The importation of crude oil, which amounted to $1.44 billion, dropped by 37.2% from $2.28 billion a year ago due to the lower cost, insurance and freight (CIF) per barrel to $37.837 from $59.664 a barrel.
Total product import cost also dropped by 21.4% to $1.95 billion at an average CIF cost of $44.36 per barrel from $2.48 billion a year ago at $66.40 per barrel. The figures were computed based on an average dollar rate of $46.90 to a peso in first-half 2016 as against $44.55 a year ago.
DoE data also show that the country’s petroleum export earnings for the period fell by 24.3% to $316.2 million from $417.9 million.
In all, this resulted in a net oil import bill of $3.07 billion, down 29.4% from $4.35 billion in the first half of 2015 due to cheaper price per barrel of crude and petroleum products.
In the same report, the DoE said major oil companies Petron Corp., Chevron Phils. and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. cornered 57% of the total demand for petroleum products.
The other industry players — which include PTT Philippines Corp., Total Philippines Corp., Seaoil Philippines, Inc., Eastern Petroleum Corp. and Filoil Energy Co., as well as end users who imported directly most of their requirement — captured 43% of the market.
Various types of crude oil imported for the period totaled 37.941 million barrels, a slight decrease of 0.9% from the first half of 2015’s 38.294 million barrels.
About 80% of the total crude mix, or 32.163 million barrels, originated from the Middle East. Of this 34.7% or 13.164 million barrels was sourced from Kuwait, which replaced Saudi Arabia as top supplier of crude oil into the country.
Of the total mix, 3.434 million barrels crude oil were imported from members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, while local production accounted for 9.1%. The remaining 6.2% or 2.343 million barrels was sourced from Russia.
