The Philippines is looking to formalize a deal to buy oil from Russia on a more permanent basis amid the energy crisis and heightened geopolitical tensions, Philippines President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has said.
The Philippines has been one of the worst-hit Asian economies in the current oil supply crisis triggered by the Middle East conflict, and has turned to Russia for ad-hoc spot supply to cover the shortfall of cargoes from the Middle East.
Now the Asian country is looking to make the Russian oil arrangement more permanent as a means to diversify its supply from too much dependence on crude needing the Strait of Hormuz to reach the Philippines.
“Now we are beginning to put that system in place and I think it will be very good for the Philippines to have another assured lifeline when it comes to petroleum products,” Marcos said about a Russian oil supply agreement, as carried by Philippine media.
“In terms of energy, there have been no firm agreements, but merely an understanding that we will continue to develop what we had already started as a response to the oil crisis that was the effect of the war in the Middle East, which we are hoping will come to an end soon,” the President added.
Before the war, the Philippines imported 98% of its oil from the Middle East.
Even if the war in the Middle East ends, the Philippines will still continue to look for so-called “non-traditional partners in terms of the supply of petroleum products,” according to Marcos, who noted that the country now has more options for oil supply than it did before the conflict.
The Philippines, where a national energy emergency was put in place in March, imported in April its first cargo of Russia’s Far Eastern crude grade ESPO for the first time in six years.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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