The Department of Energy (DOE) has recorded an increase in the country’s demand for petroleum products, which rose by 4.5 percent in the first half of the year, as well as imports which spiked by 19.5 percent due to production decline by local oil producers.
Around 87.790 million barrels of petroleum demand were logged compared to last year’s 83.977 million barrels in the same period according to a Manila Bulletin report.
The rise was due to 9.5 percent growth in gasoline demand and 5.2 percent growth in diesel.
Diesel is still the preferred fuel of most Filipino motorists with a share of 42.3 percent, while gasoline has a share of 24.5 percent.
For imports, it was stated that importation was mainly because of decreased production of local oil refiners.
DOE’s data showed that the highest imported product for the period was diesel oil, which increased by 30.3 percent.
For gasoline 11.182 million barrels were imported from previous year’s 9.353 million barrels. LPG also recorded an increase by 17.9 percent.
Importation of crude oil has significantly reduced by 30.2 percent due to Petron’s emergency and scheduled maintenance refinery shutdown.
DOE has emphasized that Middle East – mainly from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) replaced Saudi Arabia as the top supplier of crude.