DOE seeks P1-B budget for '09

The Energy Department is seeking a P1-billion budget for 2009, slightly surpassing its 2008 allocation of P997.1 million.

During the recent budget hearing at the House of Representatives, Energy Secretary Angelo T. Reyes said the huge amount is needed “to fund the department’s programs aimed at helping the country achieve energy security.”

He added that the oil supply crunch was inevitable and that the department needed the additional funds to address the challenge of ensuring the country’s energy security.

“As our country’s oil consumption increases, from 11.7 million tons of oil equivalent (MTOE) in 2006 to 13 MTOE in 2007, we have institutionalized several measures to secure our energy supply. One way to achieve this is to harness our own indigenous energy resources,” Reyes said.

The proposed P1-billion budget was anchored on a strategy of ensuring a comprehensive, integrated, responsive and consistent energy policy.

The policy will identify and achieve the optimal energy mix, promote green and clean energy, implement social mobilization and monitoring mechanisms at the local and regional levels, establish a research and development program on energy, and develop human resource capacity.

In 2007, the Philippines’ primary energy mix reached 39.4 MTOE. Self-sufficiency level reached 56 percent, a slight increase from the 2006 level of 55.4 percent.

In both years, the share of imported oil and coal accounted for over 44 percent of the supply mix. The rest is produced locally, mainly from geothermal (22.3 percent), biomass (over 14 percent) and natural gas (seven percent).

Next year, the DOE plans to further draw investments in the upstream sector through the Philippine Energy Contracting Rounds (PECR).

Reyes said the department plans to intensify the development of the natural gas industry by developing strategic infrastructure as well as conduct information campaign activities to promote its use in all demand sectors.

In the transport sector, the department established the Natural Gas Vehicle Program for Public Transport, which is expected to mitigate the country’s dependence on imported oil. The sector remains the biggest consumer of oil, which was at 72 percent in 2006 and climbed to 80 percent in 2007. 

The proposed budget also outlines major final outputs or programs of the DOE, which includes energy policies, plans and programs; energy conservation; downstream oil and natural gas; electric power industry; energy exploration; and rural electrification program.

“The biggest share of the budget amounting to P366.6 million will go to the overall supervision and implementation of the rural electrification program while the energy resource exploration and development program will get the second biggest share at P270.1 million,” Reyes pointed out.    — Ted P. Torres