(The Philippine Star) | Updated September 18, 2016 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines -
The country’s oil import bill slipped by over a quarter in the first semester
of 2016 amid continued weakness in global crude prices, the Department of
Energy said.
According to the
DOE’s latest oil supply and demand report, the net import bill, or the
difference between oil imports and exports, amounted to $3.39 billion from
January to June this year, down 28.9 percent from the same period in
2015.
“This was attributed to
lower import cost (for both crude and petroleum products) although petroleum
product import volume increased,” the DOE said.
Of the total, import
cost made up 57.6 percent finished products and 42.4 percent crude oil.
Total import of crude
oil fell 37.2 percent to $1.44 billion due to lower cost, insurance and freight
(CIF) price per barrel.
In terms of volume,
crude oil imports decreased by 0.9 percent to 37.77 million barrels.
Bulk of the imported
crude or about 85 percent of the total is sourced from the Middle East.
Specifically, the country’s major supplier of crude oil is Kuwait, accounting
for 34.7 percent, replacing Saudi Arabia with 30.3 percent.
The Philippines also
imported 3.43 billion barrels of crude oil from the ASEAN region, equivalent to
9.1 percent of the total crude mix, while the remaining 6.2 percent came from
Russia.
Meanwhile, total
product import cost declined by 21.4 percent to $1.95 billion at an average CIF
cost of $44.36 per barrel.
Petroleum product
imports reached 44.03 billion barrels, an increase of 17.7 percent year on
year.
Exports, on the other
hand, slid by 24.3 percent to $316.2 million.
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