Which countries supply oil to the Philippines?
Since 2018, the volume of proven oil reserves in the Philippines has consistently been 138.5 million barrels. This resulted in a significant decline in the volume of crude oil produced in the Philippines and a strong dependency on imports supplied by the Middle East, particularly from Saudi Arabia and UAE. In 2021, crude oil production was limited to the Galoc oil field in Palawan amid the decommissioning of other oil fields and the temporary shutdown of drilling operations on the Alegria oil field in Cebu.Meanwhile, refined petroleum products such as diesel, gasoline, and kerosene were primarily imported from South Korea, Singapore, and China in 2022. The Philippines also imported finished petroleum from Russia, although at a minimal amount. As for crude oil production, the oil refining capacity has stayed at 180,000 barrels per day since 2020. This was brought on by the closure of other refineries in recent years, leaving the Bataan Oil Refinery as the only working oil refinery in the country. As a result, petroleum refinery production declined in 2022 compared to the 2018 production volume. Due to market fluctuations and economic and political developments in oil-supplying countries, the retail price of gasoline and diesel fluctuated monthly, especially during the summer months of 2022.
