Several gas stations may be forced to close shop and others to reduce operations if the enhanced community quarantine stretches out by more than two months amid the slowdown in demand induced by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.
Energy Department director Rino Abad, however, assured fuel supply would remain adequate even as the sales of oil companies were declining.
“Sales are down but the international price of petroleum products are also getting cheaper. The oil companies will hold out for a month or two, but beyond that they will start also to minimize cost by decreasing the importations and closing down some of the gasoline stations,” Abad said.
“I don’t have the numbers but a lot of gas stations, both the major and smaller players, are affected. The bigger you are, the more affected [you are] cause of bigger overhead,” Fernando Martinez, Eastern Petroleum chairman, said.
“Stations with minimum required volume are open with half the operating hours,” Martinez said.
San Miguel Corp., parent firm of Petron Corp., the country’s biggest oil firm warned last week that the decline in demand “will likely occur for all kinds of fuel such as gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel.”
Petron owns the country’s biggest oil refinery—a 180,000-barrel-per-day facility in Bataan province.
“I think many stations have already reduced their operating hours. Eventually when the lockdown becomes stricter, there will be some sites that will reduce further its operations or close. Maybe only the ones along the major highways will remain open,” an oil executive also said.
Demand for cooking gas, however, is going up as families stay home amid the quarantine period. Martinez said sales of liquefied petroleum gas or LPG have gone up.
“EC Gas LPG got 200 to 300 percent increase in patronage due to the lockdown. More home cooking, so more orders,” he said.
Pryce Corp. earlier said LPG consumption was seen to increase as household members stayed indoors and cooked their food at home.
“This means that the company’s LPG revenues may increase at least until the COVID-19 situation has been contained and fully-managed,” Pyrce said.
Phoenix Petroleum Philippines said it was still very early to assess the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and community quarantine on fuel consumption.
“The situation remains dynamic and fluid. We saw an uptick in sales as people stock up in anticipation of the community quarantine and lockdown in Metro Manila. This may, however, slow down as we anticipate less activity, which could potentially impact our retail business,” Phoenix said.
“In our B2B segment, marine and commercial road transport as well as aviation may be affected. Moving forward, we will continue to put safety as our primary concern. Our utmost priority is to ensure employees and their families, customers, business partners, and communities remain informed, safe, and healthy,” the company said.
Petron assured consumers of continuous supply of petroleum products. Petron president and chief executive Ramon Ang said in a statement the company would make sure there is enough fuel especially for vital industries to keep the economy running.
“So far, our entire supply chain is working overtime to ensure that enough products are produced at our refinery. Vessels are continuously loaded so that our terminals are filled, and tank truck operations remain consistent. We are also trying our best to keep as many of our stations open and filled as possible while putting the safety and well-being of our employees first,” Ang said.
The Philippines has implemented a 30-day quarantine aimed at curbing the impact of COVID-19.