Net oil imports up 63% in January to September 2021

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine net oil import rose in the nine months ending September as the country’s fuel demand bounced back, according to latest data from the Department of Energy.

The net import bill, or the difference between oil imports and exports, reached $7.21 billion from January to September last year, up 62.9 percent from $4.43 billion the previous year.

The country’s total oil import bill amounted to $7.68 billion, 64.1 percent higher than the $4.68 billion recorded a year ago.

In terms of volume, total imports rose by 9.7 percent to 16.28 billion barrels.

The country had higher fuel demand last year compared to the previous year, which was at the height of lockdowns due to the pandemic, DOE-Oil Industry Management Bureau (OIMB) director Rino Abad said in a text message.

Of the total imports, 83.54 percent comprised of finished products and 16.46 percent crude oil.

Government data showed total crude imports grew by a fifth to $1.33 billion. But in terms of volume, imported crude oil slipped by 28.8 percent to 2.94 billion barrels.

Meanwhile, imported petroleum products rose 22.8 percent to 14.92 billion barrels.

In value, it jumpedby 77.7 percent to $6.35 billion.

On the other hand, the Philippines’ export earnings amounted to $474.28 million as of end-September last year, up 85.3 percent.

Data from the DOE showed total petroleum product exports slipped by 3.1 percent to 1.018 billion barrels.

“The higher finished product and lower crude oil is also due to the shutdown of the Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. (PSPC) refinery,” Abad said.

PSPC decided to permanently shut down its Tabangao refinery in August 2020, but transformed it into an import terminal to cut back operational costs and continue to provide sustainable energy to the country despite the challenging conditions posed by the pandemic.

Currently, the country’s remaining refinery is that of Petron Corp. in Bataan, which was re-operated in June last year after being shut down for months due to maintenance activities and challenging refining margins.