MANILA: The Philippines imported a total of 50.94 million barrels of petroleum products, showing 6.17% growth in 2014.
Data from the Energy department showed that net imports the difference between the country’s oil imports and exports edged up by 2.98% to $9.68 billion in the period from $9.4 billion a year earlier.
Melita V. Obillo, chief of the agency’s Oil Industry Competition & Management Division, said in an e-mail that the increase reflected higher volumes for imported crude and petroleum products.
“Although there was a drop in cost, the increase in volume or demand was much bigger,” Ms. Obillo said, adding that this was able to offset the lower prices.During the nine-month period, oil companies implemented 11 across-the-board increases and 19 decreases.Gasoline and diesel prices had total net reductions of P2.03 per liter and P3.80 per liter.
The data further showed that total imports climbed 3.7% year-on-year to $10.63 billion — with finished petroleum products accounting for 55% and crude oil for the remaining 45%.The cost of imported petroleum products grew by 4.49% year-on-year to $5.82 billion while the cost of imported crude oil rose 2.34% to $4.81 billion.
Crude oil imports totaled 44.289 million barrels during the same period or 3.91% higher from the year-earlier period.Export earnings from petroleum and its processed products rose 11.72% to $948.2 million in the nine-month period. Volumes amounted to 8.645 million barrels, an 8.51% improvement from a year earlier.Of the total, finished petroleum products accounted for $682.9 million or 6.152 million barrels; while crude oil had $265.3 million share or 2,492 million barrels.The top supplier of crude and petroleum products was Saudi Arabia, followed by Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Qatar and Brunei.
