Government, oil firms to secure fuel supply

Saturday, 30 October

By Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo And Sammy Martin, Reporters

The government on Friday initiated contingency measures to secure fuel supply in Metro Manila after First Philippine Industrial Corp. (FPIC) shut down its pipeline operations.

The Department of Energy (DOE) said in a statement that it has requested from the Department of Transportation and Communications and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority assistance in lifting a truck ban in Batangas City in Batangas province and Metro Manila while FPIC’s pipeline is not operating.

FPIC’s pipeline operations passing through Makati City have been stopped after experts from the University of the Philippines (up) found out that the pipeline has been the source of an oil leak that has severely affected residents of West Tower Condominium in Barangay (village) Bangkal for three months now.

The leak, according to a group of geologists and hydrologists from UP, was traced 30 meters away from West Tower at about 5:30 a.m. on Friday.

A leaking pipe with the diameter of a P1 coin was discovered near a ramp of a flyover in the Magallanes area and temporarily wrapped by a concrete casing.

FPIC President Leonides Garde said that they would take full responsibility for the damage.

He added that they would immediately repair the damaged pipeline with the assistance of a task force created by Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr. of

Makati City, the Energy department and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Energy Undersecretary Loreta Ayson said that the Makati mayor indicated that the pipeline shutdown might last for at least seven days.

“While the shutdown may affect the price of petroleum products, market forces will determine the price,” she added.

The commercial oil pipeline transports petroleum products from refineries in Batangas province to the Pandacan oil depot in Manila.

Directly affected by the shutdown are operations by Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. and Chevron (formerly Caltex) Philippines Inc. as more than half of their pump products are delivered through the pipeline.

To avert a fuel shortage, the oil companies have proposed to use trucks and barges to ship fuel from Batangas and Poro Port in Northern Luzon.

This plan will allow them to serve 25 percent to 30 percent of the Pandacan volume that will be displaced as a result of the pipeline shutdown.

Total Philippines Inc. will beef up its fuel stockpile while other oil companies have stated that they will implement longer hours of operations to accommodate consumer demand for petroleum products.