THE OIL IMPORT bill rose by 34.4% in the first half to $6.312 billion, in part due to a depreciating peso, making shipments of crude oil and finished petroleum products more expensive.
“This was attributed to the combined effects of higher import cost and increased import volume of crude oil vis-a-vis last year,” the Department of Energy (DoE) said in its report issued on Thursday for the first semester.
The department said the total import cost in the first half of 2018 was made up of 53.8% finished produced and 46.2% crude oil.
Crude oil imports amounted to $2.915 million, up 54% because of the higher cost, insurance and freight (CIF) price per barrel at $69.827 from $52.559 a year earlier.
DoE figures were based on an average dollar rate of P51.974, up 4% from the first half of last year.
Offsetting against oil exports, the net oil import bill was $5.679 billion, up 32.8% from a year earlier.
In terms of volume, crude oil imports in the first six months reached 41.747 million barrels (MB), an increase of 15.9% from the same period last year.
Of the total, about 37.7% or 15.754 MB was sourced from Saudi Arabia, followed by 24.6% from Kuwait. Around 90% of the total crude oil import mix was sourced from the Middle East. The United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman accounted for 18.6%, 6.2% and 2.6%, respectively.
A total of 3.849 MB of crude oil was sourced from Russia. The other sources of imported oil are member economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Taiwan and South Korea.
Meanwhile, petroleum product imports hit 45.403 MB, down 6.1% from a year earlier. Diesel was the top imported product, although volume slipped by 8.3%. The amount of imported gasoline, fuel oil, kerosene and aviation turbo fuel also fell. In contrast, imports of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) rose by 2.2%.
Petron Corp. remained the leading importer with a market share of 27.08% of total petroleum products. Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. was second with a share of 18.5%, followed by Chevron Philippines, Inc. with 7.86%. The “big three” accounted for 53.4% of the total demand.
They were followed by Phoenix Petroleum Philippines, Inc. with a share of 7.08%, Seaoil Philippines, Inc. with 4.48%, and Unioil Petroleum Philippines, Inc. with 3.08%.
Petron also had the biggest share of the LPG market with nearly 29%, followed by Liquigaz Philippines Corp. with 22.9% and South Pacific, Inc. with 14.1%.
At the end of the first half, the country had an inventory of 21.844 MB, which is equivalent to a 46-day supply. This is broken down as 38 days for crude oil and products in-country and eight days worth of product in transit. The inventory was down 12.1% from the end of June 2017.
The government continues to enforce a minimum inventory requirement given the continuing risks faced by the downstream oil industry sector such as geopolitical instability and supply delivery problems to areas affected by calamities.
The current required minimum inventory for refiners is in-country stocks equivalent to 30 days, while an equivalent of 15 days stock is required for bulk marketers and seven days for the LPG industry. — Victor V. Saulon
