STATE-OWNED PNOC Exploration Corp. yesterday said it was willing to tap oil sources abroad to ensure supply here amid warnings of a shortage in the next two weeks.
“If there will be a supply problem of oil as voiced out by the oil companies, PNOC Exploration is ready to supply oil though its various contacts in Asia and the Middle East if allowed by the President,” company chairman Jacinto Paras told reporters.
He said he supported President Gloria Arroyo’s decision to freeze pump prices at their Oct. 15 levels in Luzon following the destruction caused by the recent storms.
Oil companies have warned that supplies will run out soon because they could not continue selling at a loss following the President’s issuance of Executive Order 839.
“The president is right in issuing this [order]. This is like a bluff of oil companies. We can supply oil,” Paras said.
“PNOC Exploration has already been supplying oil to Bangladesh and is about to supply China. It is not hard for it to supply oil to its own country if an emergency exists.”
In other developments:
• The Federation of Philippine Industries yesterday urged the lifting of the prize freeze, saying its continued implementation would affect profitability in the oil sector and discourage investment there.
“It will necessarily create a shortage since there is no law that will require anybody to sell his product at a loss,” group president Jesus Aransa said.
• Senators Mar Roxas and Miriam Defensor Santiago accused Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes of siding with the oil firms.
“It is obvious that Angie Reyes is again conspiring with the oil companies to further the suffering of our people,” Roxas said.
• The government is studying a proposal from the oil companies to provide discount coupons to critical areas in Luzon in exchange for the lifting of the fuel price freeze.
“It was also agreed that the [National Disaster Coordinating Council] should determine if there is still a state of calamity... the legal basis for Executive Order 839,” Trade Secretary Peter Favila said.
• Abroad, oil prices fell below $79 a barrel Tuesday in Asia as a storm threatening oil installations in the Gulf of Mexico weakened and investors eyed a volatile dollar.
Benchmark crude for December delivery was down 83 cents to $7860 a barrel in late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Paras said his company had already inquired abroad to buy oil if the need arose.
“Upon querries with our contacts in Singapore, we can supply within 10 days upon order,” he said.
PNOC Exploration is engaged in the upstream oil sector, being a partner of Shell and Chevron in service contract 38, or the Malampaya gas-to-power project, [but] “it is likewise capable of engaging in downstream [operations] if permitted,” Paras said. Alena Mae S. Flores, Elaine Ramos Alanguilan, Fel V. Maragay, Joyce Pangco Pañares, AP
