As the country’s oil firms raise pump prices by as much as P4.85 per liter effective 6 a.m. today—the second week of consecutive oil price increases for all products—President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. vowed to cooperate with Russia and Denmark for the country’s energy needs, including renewables.
Oil players implemented a price hike of P4.85 per liter for kerosene, P4.30 per liter for diesel, and P2.15 per liter for gasoline.
On June 7, oil firms also increased the price of gasoline by P2.70 per liter, diesel by P6.55 per liter, and kerosene by P2.45 per liter.
These resulted in year-to-date adjustments at a net increase of P26.55 per liter for gasoline, P36.85 per liter for diesel, and P33.10 per liter for kerosene.
Crude prices rose in the past weeks after the European Union agreed to ban Russian seaborne imports for the next six months, resulting in a tighter global oil supply.
For his part, Russian Ambassador to the Philippines Marat Pavlov said Moscow is ready “to extend our helping hands” to help the Philippines to meet its energy needs.
“We are ready to cooperate with the Philippine side to extend our helping hands to satisfy the needs in sources of energy,” Pavlov said after his courtesy call on Marcos, the country’s incoming 17th president.
“We discussed this area of cooperation, and we found out that in this turbulent period of our life, the Russian Federation could extend its hand to help the Philippines in much needed oil, gas and other sources of energies,” he said.
In his meeting with Denmark Ambassador to the Philippines Grete Sillasen, Marcos acknowledged the “need to look” at sustainable and renewable energy.
“[President-elect Marcos expressed] dedication to seeing that sustainable and renewable energy is the way we need to look…Our meeting focused to a high degree on the green transition that all countries have to go through these days and these years that are coming,” Sillasen said.
“We had a focus on talking about sustainability, which is partly the sustainable use of energies, so we have green energies and fossil energies but also very importantly, be efficient with the energy we are using,” she said.
About half of Denmark’s electricity needs are supplied by wind and solar power.
Marcos was quoted by Sillasen as saying that the “greenest, cheapest and cleanest energy is one that we [Philippines] do not use.”
The country relies on imported coal for more than half of its power generation.
Marcos, in his talks with South Korean Ambassador Kim Inchul in May, said his administration would review proposals to revive the mothballed $2.2-billion Bataan nuclear plant built during his father’s term.
Studies by South Korean and Russian experts showed it was possible to get the plant working again, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi told a Senate hearing in 2020.
But upgrading a facility fitted with outdated analog technology could take at least four years and cost another $1 billion.
“So, we revived the discussions on it, although they have come before. We will now study their recommendations and their findings, and we will see if we can still apply,” Marcos said.
