DOE eyes Zamboanga for oil storage facility site

The Department of Energy (DOE) said on Thursday that it is considering a larger area in Zamboanga to set up a storage facility that can handle 50 million barrels of oil.

DOE Undersecretary Alessandro Sales shared that they recently had a meeting with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Saudi Arabia's Aramco regarding the planned oil facility.

"This will be their commercial storage na mabebenta nila around the region and they will spend for setting up the facility, at yung mga produkto na ilalagay sa mga tanke," he said during the Senate’s deliberation on DOE’s proposed P5.57 billion budget for 2027.

(This will be their commercial storage that they can sell around the region, and they will spend on setting up the facility and the products that will be placed in the tanks.)

"It gives us the flexibility on how we handle ‘yung ating National Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Because we can build alongside para makatipid sa sarili nating tanke or we could just have an arrangement with them to have access sa product, so hindi na tayo gagastos sa tanke mismo," he added.

(It gives us flexibility on how we handle our National Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Because we can build alongside it to save costs on our own tanks, or we could just have an arrangement with them to have access to the product, so we won't have to spend on the tanks themselves.)

The DOE said it is actively looking for a potential site for a new oil storage facility.

It can be recalled there was a proposal for Aramco's planned oil facility at a property owned by state-run Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) in Bataan province.

However, the DOE said that 500 hectares of land is needed to host 50 million barrels, which is far from 150 hectares of land available in the proposed Bataan site.

The department said that it also looked into an area somewhere in Northern Mindanao, but it's already out of the table.

"Ang unang tinignan namin ay somewhere in Northern Mindanao, but mukhang hindi makukuha ng Department of Energy," said Sales.

(The first area we looked at was somewhere in Northern Mindanao, but it seems like the Department of Energy won't be able to acquire it.)

"So we are now looking at another area in Zamboanga, much larger. So pupuntahan na rin namin, jointly with PNOC. But ang agreement is to fast-track yung identification at acquisition ng lupa para mailagay yung strategic reserves sa bansa natin."

The government is promoting the Philippines to be an oil storage hub for the whole of Asia by allowing other countries to build storage facilities in the country.

(So we are now looking at another area in Zamboanga, which is much larger. So we will be visiting it soon, jointly with PNOC. But the agreement is to fast-track the identification and acquisition of the land so that the strategic reserves can be placed in our country.)

But the DOE earlier said that in case of oil emergencies, the Philippines would be a priority in the oil storage hubs set up by other countries. —RF, GMA News