Declining world prices pulled down the Philippines’s oil import bill in the January-to-June period to $4.25 billion from $6.63 billion in the same period a year ago despite the rise in the volume of imported petroleum products.
“The country’s first half of 2015 net oil import bill, amounting to $4,254.7 million was down by 35.9 percent from first half of 2014’s $6,637.3 million due to cheaper price per barrel of crude and petroleum products (about 50 percent) vis-à-vis last year,” latest data provided by the Department of Energy (DOE) stated.
Net import is the difference between the country’s net imports and exports.
Cost of imported crude oil went down to $60.27 per barrel during the six-month period this year, from $11.28 per barrel in the same period a year earlier.
The total crude oil imported for the first half of 2015 reached 38.25 million barrels (MB), up by 21.7 percent from 2014’s 30.27 MB.
As such, total import of crude oil amounted to $2.30 billion from $3.37 billion, down by 31.6 percent.
On the other hand, the country’s petroleum-export earnings for the period fell by 32.9 percent to $415.6 million from $619.1 million.
The DOE report further stated that total demand of finished petroleum products for the first half grew by 13.8 percent in the same period last year.
The growth in demand, it added, was attributed to the increased requirements of direct importers/end users, particularly for naphtha and condensate products.
Compared with first half of 2014 figures, gasoline demand posted an increase of 13.7 percent, while diesel-oil demand rose by 9.6 percent.
Demand for liquefied petroleum gas, kerosene and aviation also grew in the first half.