PNOC studies oil stockpiling

MANILA, Philippines -  State-run Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) is undertaking a study on an oil stockpiling program, its top official said.

PNOC president Reuben Lista said the country currently does not have a national oil reserve.

Putting up a stockpile will require revisiting the Oil Deregulation Law of 1998, Lista said.

“We are contemplating and we are studying and coordinating with the Congress,” he said.

A model being looked at is the Netherlands Petroleum Stockpiling Agency (COVA), an independent national organization which is responsible for the strategic oil stocks of the Netherlands.

The aim of COVA is to fulfill, on behalf and by mandate of the minister of economic affairs, the purchase, sale and storage of crude oil and oil products based on the requirements set by the International Energy Agency and the European Union.

“Their national government is not doing the stockpiling but they require all of their oil players to allocate percentage in their depot reserved for national emergency,” Lista said.

In the Philippines, stockpiling is being done by private oil companies which considers it as their one month strategic reserve.

Lista said this should be controlled by government for national security.

“Major players, Petron, Shell, Caltex and Phoenix, they all have large storage facilities. There should be a percentage of their storage facilities for national security,” he said.

Another option being looked at is to seek an appropriation to build the government’s own oil stockpile.

“If Congress can appropriate budget for this, we can build our own. In other countries, governments have their own stockpile,” Lista said.