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What's behind the Philippines' 'national energy emergency' · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's none of the Philippines, which has declared a year
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: long national energy emergency and response to Iran's blocking of
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: the Strait of Homemus, President Ferdinand Marcos Junior announced that
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: he'd signed an executive order to safeguard energy security amid
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: severe disruptions to global supply chains award of the imminent
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: threat posed by the US Israel war against Iran to
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  Speaker 1: his country's fuel supply. The Philippines is dependent on fuel imports,
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  Speaker 1: making it particularly vulnerable to disruptions in production and shipping well.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Journalist La May in Manila told us more.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Just a few hours ago, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos is
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  Speaker 2: announced a state of national energy emergency, saying that the
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: ongoing unrest in the Middle East has put an imminent
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  Speaker 2: danger upon the availability and stability of the country's energy supply.
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  Speaker 2: This just comes a day after his administration claimed there's
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  Speaker 2: no oil crisis in the This is because Philippines only
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  Speaker 2: has about forty five days of oil reserves left and
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  Speaker 2: rely heavily on fossil fuel and petroleum products coming from
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  Speaker 2: the Middle East. Thus, a chain of catastrophic events is
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  Speaker 2: seen to follow, with transportation, farm to market logistics even
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  Speaker 2: manufacturing will be severely affected, and this crisis comes untimely
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  Speaker 2: as the country faces the hot summer in the coming weeks,
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  Speaker 2: thus will have high energy demands.
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  Speaker 1: Well, let's explore this further with yes Al Malecki, who
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  Speaker 1: is an energy economist and an analyst at the Middle
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  Speaker 1: East to Economic Survey. Welcome to d W. Let's start
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  Speaker 1: with how bad the fuel situation in the Philippines is
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  Speaker 1: at the moment.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you for having me. Indeed, it is quite bad.
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  Speaker 3: The decision by the government comes after a number of
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  Speaker 3: protests in the country because of increased diesel prices and
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  Speaker 3: also decisions by local airlines to suspend some flights all
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  Speaker 3: the way to October. As you said at the beginning
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  Speaker 3: of your reports, the Philippines or imports nearly all of
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  Speaker 3: its fuel needs, making it quite vulnerable to a prolonged
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  Speaker 3: closure of this trait. Of all news, it typically imports
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  Speaker 3: crude oil and refined products from Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia,
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  Speaker 3: the Uaa, Kuwait, and Iraq. But also this decision reflects
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  Speaker 3: a shift within the region. Other suppliers in the Asia
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  Speaker 3: Pacific region have restricted their exports, even especially China, which
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  Speaker 3: more recently has extended this to fertilizers, and many of
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  Speaker 3: these economies are trying to preserve energy and food reserves
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  Speaker 3: as they are trying to protect their economies.
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  Speaker 1: So explain to us, then, how declaring a national Energy
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  Speaker 1: emergency helps the Philippines address this problem. What can Ferdinand
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  Speaker 1: Marcus Junior do today that he couldn't do before?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I mean, first of all, this is a perfect
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  Speaker 3: case of an Asian price sensitive economy getting impacted by
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  Speaker 3: the account crisis. In terms of the measures, you know,
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  Speaker 3: those measures with across board in such a situation would
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  Speaker 3: include fewer rationing, restrictions on exports, are preventing boarding, stock filing,
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  Speaker 3: issuing subsidies, while also refiners within the country would be
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  Speaker 3: cutting running rates at refineries to try to preserve whatever
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  Speaker 3: crude oil supplies they have. The government is also trying
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  Speaker 3: to build a buffer, a diesel buffer. They are trying
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  Speaker 3: to put together five hundred million dollars almost half a
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  Speaker 3: billion to build that buffer, but it is going to
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  Speaker 3: be quite hard given the competition of diesel supplies in
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  Speaker 3: Asia and the higher prices diesel jet. You will almost
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  Speaker 3: all the distillates are quite high in terms of price
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  Speaker 3: at the moment.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, And we heard from the head of the International
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  Speaker 1: Energy Agency this week, Fatty bureau He said, the world
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  Speaker 1: is facing an energy crisis worse than the nineteen seventies
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  Speaker 1: oil sharks combined. So how long does the strait of
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  Speaker 1: horn Moves need to be closed for local emergencies like
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  Speaker 1: those being deployed in the Philippines to be exhausted. And
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: when those are exhausted, what will we be looking at?
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  Speaker 1: What will be what will we be looking at?
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  Speaker 3: So doctor Bureaul is quite right, you know, and all
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  Speaker 3: the measures that are being pursued at the moment our
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  Speaker 3: typical textbook, they are all temporary though, you know, whether
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  Speaker 3: you cut consumption, rationalize the usage of stockpiles, or release
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  Speaker 3: reserves by the end of the day, this is a
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  Speaker 3: temporary measure until the strait of horn Moves is restarted.
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  Speaker 3: The risk here is that if we see a prolonged
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  Speaker 3: closure for two months to go, or maybe even more
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  Speaker 3: three months, then what happens at the Philippines will happen
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  Speaker 3: almost everywhere else. We already are seeing signs of this
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  Speaker 3: in other Asian economies that are priced instead of like Vietnam, India,
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  Speaker 3: which is facing severe LPG, cooking gas shortages Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand.
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  Speaker 3: They even started a fuel switching back to CALL because
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  Speaker 3: of high alng and gas prices.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, thanks for that, so two or three months, thanks
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: for talking us through that. Yes, Sir, i'll a Maleki
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: from the Middle East Economic Survey. Thank you so much.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: Thank you.