Oil import bill drops in 6 months

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine net oil import slightly declined in the first six months of the year due to lower cost and volume,  latest  data from the Department of Energy (DOE) showed.

The net import bill, or the difference between oil imports and exports, amounted to $5.63 billion, down 5.6 percent year-on-year.

According to the DOE, the country’s total oil import bill amounted to $6.05 billion, 8.3 percent lower than the previous year.

“This was attributed to the combined effects of lower import cost and decreased volume of crude imported vis-à-vis last year’s level,” the DOE said.

Cost, insurance, and freight for the period averaged $66.27 per barrel versus the average cost of $69.99 per barrel a year ago.

Government data showed total import crude amounted to $2.03 billion, down 32 percent from $2.99 billion.

Of the total imports, 33.6 percent consist of finished products and 66.4 percent is crude oil.

Imported crude oil reached 35,759 million barrels, 30.2 percent lower than the 42,760 million barrels  last year.

“The drop was attributed to the emergency and scheduled maintenance/ turnaround of one of the local refinery sometime in April of this year which resulted to increased imports of finished petroleum products to augment supply,” DOE said.

Majority of the imported crude oil, or 73.9 percent of the total, is sourced from the Middle East. UAE was the top supplier with 32.2 percent, replacing Saudi Arabia. It was followed by Kuwait with 26.3 percent, Russia (14.5 percent) and Saudi Arabia (12.2 percent).

Meanwhile, import of petroleum products rose 19.5 percent to 57,497 million barrels.

“This was due to the decrease in production volume of the oil refiners,” DOE said.

On the other hand, the Philippines’ export earnings amounted to $420 million this year, down 33.4 percent.

Data also showed the country’s petroleum products export dropped by 24.2 percent to 5,,978 million barrels.

Condensate remained as the top exported product, cornering 40.6 percent. The rest of the export mix comprised pygas (14.3 percent), naphtha (8.8 percent), mixed C4 (8.1 percent), fuel oil (5.9 percent), gasoline (5.2 percent), propylene (5.1 percent), mixed xylene (4.4 percent), diesel (three percent), asphalts (1.9 percent), toluene (1.6 percent), benzene (0.7 percent), reformate (0.4 percent) and LPG (0.02 percent).