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By Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo, Reporter
DESPITE a drop in the country’s
importation of oil, the Philippines had to pay a fifth more for fuel
last year because of soaring prices in the international market.
Energy Secretary Raphael P.M.
Lotilla said that the country’s net oil import bill increased by
20 percent to $6.8 billion year on year, even as the volume of
imported crude and petroleum products shrunk by 2.6 percent.
The country’s net oil imports
volume a year ago was placed at 100.8 million barrels as against
103.46 in 2005.
The slight drop in import volume
was due to a decrease in demand as a result of costlier fuel as well
as to demand side management programs the government began.
The decrease in fuel consumption
was led by kerosene, importation of which dropped 22.2 percent. This
was followed by similar drops in the country’s purchases of fuel
oil, gasoline, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) at 17.0
percent, 6.6 percent, 5.4 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively.
Lotilla admitted that alternative
fuels, such as biodiesel and bioethanol, have yet to cut the
country’s reliance on imported oil since their use remains
voluntary.
”The use of alternative fuels
in 2006 may not be significant yet as it is still being used on a
voluntary basis. Nonetheless, local oil demand has been decreasing
as Filipinos are now becoming more conscious of the need to
conserve, in view of the volatile prices of petroleum products in
the world market,” he said.
Department of Energy records show
that daily domestic oil consumption peaked at about 385,000 barrels
per day in 1997 but decreased to 329,000 in 2000 and to 276,500 last
year.
Lotilla said these figures may eventually go down further because of
the mandatory implementation of the use of one percent biodiesel for
automotive diesel beginning next month.
The decline in demand was
likewise felt in terms of consumption of locally processed crude,
which also dropped 2.6 percent to 77,160 million barrels because of
the shutdown of several process units due to scheduled maintenance
or power outages brought by strong typhoons that hit the country
last year.
This also resulted to a decline
of 1.8 percent in the local refinery capacity utilization from 74.2
percent in 2005.
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