DOE Eyes Creation of Task Force vs Possible Oil Crisis

The Department of Energy (DOE) is eyeing the creation of an inter-agency task force to address the possible fuel crisis.

During the Senate Committee hearing on Energy, Rino Abad, director of the DOE's Oil Industry Management Bureau, said that they will submit a proposal to the executive branch of their plans for the creation of the Oil Contingency Task Force (OCTF).

Aside from DOE, the OCTF will be composed of representatives from the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Agriculture, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Transportation, Department of Foreign Affairs, and the National Security Council.

The planned oil contingency task force will create policies and guidelines to ensure that oil disruptions will be addressed.

Should a national emergency be declared, the task force will be given the authority to impose fuel allocation and to takeover private utilities.

The draft of the task force's creation was slated to be submitted yesterday, September 23, and will be subjected to consultations with the involved agencies.

When finalised, the said draft will be forwarded to the Office of the President.

The said hearing was made after last week's attack on Saudi Arabian Oil Company’s (ARAMCO) key facilities.

Senate Energy Committee Chairperson Sherwin Gatchalian said that the recent price movement is justified, since there have been movements on the pricing following the drone attacks.

"Justified 'yung pagtaas ng presyo dahil gumalaw ng konti ang presyo ng diesel at gasoline noong nagkaroon ng aberya sa Saudi pero dapat ring siguruhin ng gobyerno na bababa ito next week dahil marami naman nang supply na pumasok," Gatchalian said. "Temporary lang ang pagtaas ng presyo pero mas importante na masigurado na bumaba ang presyo next week. Nagkasabay kasi ang pagtaas ng presyo, nakita ko roon sa graph kanina, even before nangyari ang attack sa Saudi, pataas na yung trend."

Acoording to him, in cases such as what had happened, the energy department needs to provide updates to better understand the situation.

"'Yung mga ganitong panahon po, importante po dito yung blow-by-blow updates from the DOE and we also understand the contingency measure in place or will be in place so the markets will come down so that the public will be assured that there will be no supply disruptions to our transportation as well as our industries," Gatchalian said during the hearing.

Earlier, fuel companies have already announced the more than PHP2-per-liter increase on gasoline products.