Department of Energy (DoE) Secretary Alfonso Cusi on Thursday stressed that energy security remains at the forefront of the agency’s strategic direction as it aggressively pursues energy investments on exploration, development and utilization of its indigenous energy resources.

The Energy chief also noted that the DoE is victoriously closing the year as it went few steps ahead of its targets this year.

“Part of our energy security is round the clock access to a reliable and quality electricity supply. After conducting nationwide focus group discussions and public consultations, we will be releasing the Department Circular adopting the General Framework for Ancillary Services before the year’s end,” said Cusi.

He also added that the circular will help ensure the availability of reserves for seamless grid operations and in terms of the country’s need to establish firm petroleum reserves, the secretary said that the Energy Department has already submitted its recommendation to the Office of the President on the creation of an Oil Contingency Committee.

According to Cusi, the committee will handle immediate oil supply concerns in the event of natural, man-made or geopolitical events that may cause supply disruptions or sharp volatilities in world oil prices.

“In addition, we have also requested the PNOC to establish a Strategic Petroleum Reserve Program,” Cusi said.

To encourage greater transparency within the power sector, the DoE is now formulating a Department Circular that requires the publication of the scheduled maintenance outages of power plants.

The agency is also ramping up the promotion of competitive market under a regime of fair prices in the downstream oil industry through an Oil Price Unbundling Circular and Cusi noted that the mandate is a balanced approach, allowing the DoE to actively protect consumers by preventing prohibited acts such as predatory pricing and cartelization.

“We look forward to the awarding of compliant applications, as well as the entry of more interested parties in 2020,” said Cusi.