Government races to fill up fuel stocks until May

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March 19, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is scrambling to secure fuel stocks for May, exploring potential supplies from as far as Canada and the United States as reserves are expected to run dry next month.

Energy Secretary Sharon Garin said the government and oil companies aim to lock in supply deals to ensure that the country’s fuel stockpiles extend beyond April amid the ongoing Middle East conflict.

“They’re (oil firms) ordering now for their May stocks. There might be risks that their source might not deliver, so the government is also procuring,” Garin told ANC yesterday.

“We’re slowly locking in some offers. Little by little, we’re trying to make sure that May is covered,” she said.

State-run Philippine National Oil Co. has started the procurement process for two million barrels of diesel from the global market, enough to provide an additional 10 days of buffer stock.

Garin said the government is also exploring alternative supply sources outside Asia, including the US, Canada and South American countries.

Sourcing from these countries, however, may prove challenging due to the distance and longer delivery times.

In the US, for instance, the per-barrel price may be lower compared to other Asian markets, but higher logistical costs would push up the overall price, Garin noted.

The Philippines imported 165.25 million liters of diesel and 127.61 million liters of gasoline from the US from January to September last year, Department of Energy data showed.

These volumes accounted for 2.55 percent and 3.19 percent of the country’s diesel and gasoline imports, respectively, during the nine-month period.

Most of the country’s finished products come from Asian refineries, which in turn source their crude oil or unrefined petroleum from the Middle East.

The escalating US-Israel war with Iran continues to disrupt crude shipments from one of the world’s top?producing regions, sending shockwaves through global markets.

In the Philippines, oil firms implemented price hikes ranging from P20.40 to P23.90 per liter for diesel, P12.90 to P16.60 for gasoline and P6.90 to P8.90 for kerosene this week.

These latest adjustments have pushed diesel prices above P100 per liter, while gasoline now hovers around the P90 mark.

This follows last week’s biggest single adjustment in fuel prices, when gasoline jumped by P7 to P13 per liter, diesel by P17.50 to P24.25 and kerosene by P32 to P38.50.

For Garin, fuel prices are unlikely to drop anytime soon, given the uncertainties in the Middle East.

“It all depends on the war. The worst part is that the effects will be longer. The prices will take longer to go down,” the energy chief said.

“All the oil fields that they bombed will take longer to prepare. Probably another six months after the war, it will slowly go back to normal – prices and logistics,” she added.

Currently, the government has no control over fuel prices due to the decades-old oil deregulation law, which fully liberalizes the country’s downstream oil industry.