Nat’l strategic petroleum reserve pushed
CAMARINES Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte on Sunday urged the incoming administration of President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. (BBM) to consider putting up a national strategic petroleum reserve (SPR)—a long-conceived government plan that has “sadly crawled at a snail’s pace” at the Department of Energy (DoE)—especially now when domestic pump prices of fuel are close to reaching the level of P100 per liter.
Villafuerte said that, “given the seemingly endless oil price spiral in the world market, one way for the incoming BBM administration to stabilize the retail cost of petroleum products—and shield consumers and motorists from the debilitating effects of sky-high prices of gasoline and fuel—is to put up a state-run storage facility that would enable the government to bring in additional inventory that could help soften future price surges.”
“I hope the BBM administration will take a long look at the SPR plan, which has unfortunately been stuck in the planning stage at the DoE for over two years now,” said Villafuerte, who had broached the idea about a national fuel reserve more than two years ago.
Villafuerte issued this statement as retail prices of petroleum products are set to go up this week for the third time in a month. Following the latest two price adjustments, the cost of gasoline has already gone up to about P95 per liter of gasoline and that of diesel to some P84 per liter.
With both price adjustments, the aggregate increase of gasoline prices since January has reached almost P29 per liter of gasoline and that of diesel by over P41 a liter.
This week, the pump prices of fuel are expected to rise anew by another P2.40 to P2.70 per liter of diesel and by 30 to 60 centavos per liter of gasoline.
Villafuerte said there seems to be no end in sight for oil price surges as experts list the upside risks in the months ahead as the drag on the global economy of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; the weakening peso, which is now being traded at over P53 against the greenback; the lockdown in China; the European Union (UE)’s ban on Russian oil imports; and the swelling demand for fuel in northern hemisphere states because of the summer travel peak period between June and September.
Villafuerte earlier expressed disgust over the DoE officials’ “utter lack of a sense of urgency on the SPR plan. Look, they are not even studying it; they are still in the preparatory stage on how to go about conducting such a study. I am afraid it is taking the DOE so long to consider the SPR, let alone set it up, to the point that the Philippines might have switched to e-vehicles or hybrid cars already by the time a strategic petroleum reserve is up and running in the country.”
Although there isn’t any time left to put up such an SPR to address the current petroleum price surge on the Duterte watch, Villafuerte said “energy officials must drop their lackadaisical approach and put this strategic petroleum reserve plan in motion in preparation for future conflicts, supply hitches or any other geopolitical developments or catastrophes that could drive fuel prices to later go up north anew beyond the reach of ordinary Filipinos.”
