No oil crisis yet, DOE says amid price spike

The Department of Energy (DOE) pushed back against mounting fears of an oil crisis, assuring the public that fuel supply remains intact even as the country braces for another round of steep pump price increases driven by global market volatility.

Energy Secretary Sharon S. Garin said in a public interview on Monday that inventory levels remain sufficient, with supply previously estimated at around 60 days and expected to hold steady until the first week of May.

She said the government continues to secure additional volumes, including about 200,000 barrels procured last week, another 300,000 barrels locked in, and 500,000 barrels more being arranged to ensure at least one million barrels of supply.

“That is only five days but that is also a lot of money,” she said, stressing the scale of the procurement effort.

Amid projections of sharp price hikes, Garin said the greater risk lies in potential supply disruption rather than rising costs.

“The worst crisis we could face is if we lose supply, if we ration,” she said.

“The first order of the day is that the Philippines has a supply… There’s no price to talk about if there is no supply.”

She added that current efforts have kept inventory levels from falling to critical thresholds.

The DOE is also pressing oil companies to stagger price adjustments to soften the impact on consumers, although compliance remains uneven.

“We do ask them to keep on staggering, but some do, and some do not,” Garin said, noting that the lack of regulation in the downstream oil sector and the financial strain on firms limit broader adoption.

She noted that local pump price increases are steeper than in other countries due to the absence of fuel subsidies and the country’s limited refining capacity.

“We are high because we are the only one without fuel price subsidies and we do not have a robust refinery industry compared to them,” she said.

In a separate advisory, Petro Gazz will expand its pump price rollback to 45 stations nationwide starting, cutting P5 per liter off both diesel and gasoline.

The rollback covers additional sites across Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, following earlier adjustments in select Metro Manila stations last week.

Meanwhile, Jetti Petroleum Inc. became the first—and so far the only—oil firm to confirm that diesel prices will rise by P18.00 per liter and gasoline prices by P8 per liter effective tomorrow morning.

Oil companies typically announce price adjustments every Monday to be implemented on the following day’s morning.

They adjust their prices weekly based on the movement of the Mean of Platts Singapore — the regional pricing benchmark adopted by the deregulated downstream oil sector.