Declining world oil prices pulled down the Philippines’s oil-import bill in 2016 to $6.7 billion, from $7.7 billion, in 2015, even as the country imported more petroleum products.
“Overall, the country’s 2016 net oil-import bill amounting to $6.776.8 billion was down by 12.4 percent, from 2015’s $7.733.3 billion,” a Department of Energy report posted on its web site stated.
Net oil import is the difference between the country’s net imports and exports. Total oil-import cost was made up of 55.4 percent finished products and 44.6 percent crude oil.
The total crude oil imported in 2016 reached 78,772 million barrels (MB), a slight increase of 0.9 percent from 2015’s 78,060 MB.
Total import of crude oil amounted to $3.321 billion last year, 17.9 percent lower than $4.043.1 billion in 2015, due to lower price per barrel from 2015’s $51.795 per barrel to $42.149 per barrel.
On the other hand, the country’s petroleum exports earnings for the period fell by 23.2 percent, from $878.7 million in 2015 to $675 million last year.