DOE prepares plan for possible oil crisis

The Department of Energy (DOE) is implementing a so-called four As approach in addressing a possible oil crisis due to the Middle East conflict.

The first A is affordability. Energy Secretary Vincent S. Perez said keeping the cost of the electricity down is the most important aspect of the government’s energy policy.

Second is accessibility or the ability of the government to spread and expand the universal service up to far flung/rural areas of the country.

The third is availability. This answers the question: Is it available indigenously like geothermal or is available from other countries like coal?

The last is acceptability. Perez cited the mothballed nuclear power plant in Bataan which is not acceptable to the Philippine society.

"Our focus in the area of energy security in this crisis is diversification of sources of energy. It is paramount therefore and it is the objective of the state to diversify its sources of energy whether it is coal, natural gas, hydro-electric, crude oil, geothermal or nuclear."

Perez said it is also important to note that the government should not make the same mistakes that caused power shortage crisis in the past.

"You should avoid mistake like what we did in 1996 of shutting down one form of fuel for example nuclear without any alternative," the energy chief said.

Aside from this policy direction being adopted by the DOE, the agency is also looking at the possibility of using Subic Bay as a potential site for the proposed regional oil stock pile.

Perez said there are also talks on activating the ASEAN Petroleum Supply Agreement (APSA). APSA is an agreement among energy ministers wherein oil exporting nations in ASEAN commit to supply crude to other non-oil producing ASEAN members.

At present, local oil companies are sourcing portions of their crude and petroleum products requirements from Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.

An Energy Contingency Task Force, chaired by Perez, was also formed to ensure the implementation of the Oil Contingency Plan (OCF) in event of any major oil supply disruption that will affect the country. The OCF, which was prepared in the 1970’s to address the oil crisis at that time, was recently updated by the DOE in consultation with the oil industry players.