The country’s net oil import bill soared 64.4 percent in 2022 to $19.023 billion from $11.574 billion in 2021 amid higher world oil prices.
Data from the Department of Energy’s Oil Industry Management Bureau’s Year-End Comprehensive Report showed that total petroleum demand reached 26.803 billion liters last year, an increase of 9.2 percent from 24.553 billion liters in 2021.
This translated into an average daily requirement of 73.4 million liters last year, up from 67.3 million liters in 2021 amid the increased economic activity and less stringent travel restrictions implemented nationwide.
Petron Corp. had the biggest market share in 2022 at 21.29 percent, followed by Shell Pilipinas Corp. with 15.55 percent and Chevron Philippines with 4.92 percent. The other small players cornered 50.81 percent of market demand.
Meanwhile, total oil import bill amounted to $19.579 billion, up by 61.1 percent from $12.154 billion in 2021. “This was attributed to high import cost of crude and finished petroleum products in 2022,” the DOE said.
Net oil import volume slightly increased last year to 25.501 billion liters from 23.628 billion liters in 2021. Total oil import cost was made up of 77.4 percent finished petroleum products and 22.6 percent crude oil.
The import cost of crude oil reached $4.429 billion, or 95 percent higher than $2.271 billion year-on-year.
The DOE said product import cost registered a growth of 53.3 percent from $9.883 billion to $15.15 billion on higher import costs of finished products.
Meanwhile, export earnings dropped 4.1 percent from $580.14 million in 2021 to $556.53 million in 2022 on decreased sales volume.
The average foreign exchange rate was at P54.50 a dollar last year, down from P49.28 a dollar in 2021, which contributed to a higher import bill.
The Philippines imported its entire crude oil requirements from the Middle East, of which 52.51 percent came from Saudi Arabia.
South Korea was the country’s top supplier of imported finished petroleum products with an import share of 30.7 percent, followed by Singapore with 22.3 percent and China with 15.4 percent.
Refinery production output climbed 52.2 percent from 4.577 billion liters to 6.968 billion liters due to the normalization of Petron’s refinery.
