LPG supply good for only 33 days, DOE says

THE Department of Energy (DOE) on Tuesday said its reserve fuel supplies are expected to last up to an average of 50 days or until the end of May, but its stock of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) would last only 33 days. According to the agency’s data as of April 3, the supply of gasoline is good for 58 days, diesel for about 47 days, kerosene for 106 days, jet fuel for 66 days and LPG for 33 days. The DOE said, however, that it is continuing to procure more fuel and is expecting supply to improve in the following weeks and months. “Even if our supply currently looks like this, we are continuing to procure more fuels from other sources.... We are also not the only ones doing this as the private sector is also doing this as well,” Energy Secretary Sharon Garin said. Garin said fuel prices were unlikely to come down quickly even if the war ends, as the affected countries in the Middle East will need to recover, and the supply chains will take some time to normalize. “This war has been ongoing for four weeks now. If it was just one week, there wouldn’t be any permanent damage. Now, it’s even more than four weeks. There is permanent damage to the structure of the international oil community so there’s no assurance also of the availability of the supply from the Middle East. With this in mind, I expect prices to not return to their levels before the war anytime soon as its effects go beyond the region,” Garin said. Garin said the government has not yet decided on proposals to cut or suspend the excise tax on fuel. “We talked about it this morning when we had the UPLIFT meeting with the president. This will still be subject to the meeting of the president with the Development Budget Coordination Committee. The decision was not made yet at that time, I think they would be in a better position to answer that,” she said. The Palace said an announcement would be made Wednesday.

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