Oil price hikes likely to continue until May: DOE

The soaring price of petroleum products may continue in the coming months before gradually declining in May or June, according to a Department of Energy (DOE) official on Tuesday.

In TeleRadyo’s “Sakto” program, DOE-Oil Industry Management Bureau director Atty. Rino Abad explained why crude oil had risen seven times this year.

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According to Abad, there has been a problem with the shortage of global oil supply since last year.

“Ito’y nagsimula nung year 2021. Alam po naman natin na halos P20 ang in-increase ng mga prices ng petroleum products aggregated for the whole year. Ang rason po noon ay wala pong quarter nung last year na hindi nagkakaroon ng shortage sa crude oil supply sa international market,” he said.

“In fact yung third quarter of 2021, umabot po ng around more than 3 million ang kakulangan, at it ended up, ang average po ng buong taon ng 2021 ay umaabot po ng 1.85 million barrels per day ang kulang po doon sa 2021.”

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He said the Organization of Petroleum-Exporting Countries or OPEC has said that they will try to help alleviate the oil supply problem.

“We’re expecting na mapupunuan na po yan for the first and second quarter, in fact until May or June of 2022…because of the 400,000 barrels na pangako ng OPEC sa every month staggered increase.”

But according to Abad, some countries that are part of OPEC also have problems in early 2022.

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Oil price hikes likely to continue until May: DOE

“May mga problema din ang OPEC members like Libya, Kazakhstan, Ecuador. Nagkaroon sila ng mga supply disruptions, may gulo sa Libya, may gulo sa Kazakhstan, at ang actual na naibigay po for the past 2 months, yung sinasabi ng OPEC na 400,000, ay 200,000 lang po.”

“Just imagine, 1.8 (million) ang kulang natin, ang naidadagdag po ngayon na actual sa January is only 200,000 barrels. So clearly, yung market po, kulang talaga ng supply,” he said.

“Ang pangalawang issue dyan, yung current natin na demand, hindi pa napupunuan, nagkautang-utang pa yung inventory natin last year. In fact ang report ng plot, umaabot ng 449 million barrels ang kinuha doon sa mga stored capacity natin.”

“For example, yung strategic petroleum reserve ng buong mundo, iyan ay nakikipag-agawan din dahil bini-build up din yan ng China for example, ng India, ng Japan, tina-try nilang i-build up ulit ngayong merong supply na available, pero nakikipag-agawan sila doon sa current demand na mismong nagkukulang na rin.”

“So dahil diyan, talagang sustained po yan, talagang sustained po yung pressure doon sa supply at talagang meron pong epekto doon sa pataas na pataas ng pagsipa ng price,” said Abad.

According to the official, the rise in oil prices could be reduced this May or June.

But according to Abad, the government is doing everything to help Filipinos amid rising crude oil prices.

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