Sawt Falasteen - Russian oil arrives as Philippines battles 'energy emergency'

The Sierra Leone-flagged Sara Sky, bearing high-quality crude from Russia's ESPO pipeline arrived on Monday, with documents showing the consignee as Petron Corp, operator of the Philippines' sole oil refinery, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous as they were not authorised to speak to press.

The Philippines is heavily dependent on imported fuel, the cost of which has hit historic highs since the US-Israeli war with Iran forced the partial closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

An AFP journalist on Thursday saw the Sara Sky at anchor in Limay port just outside Manila, where the Petron refinery is located. It is believed to be the first shipment of Russian oil to the Philippines in five years.

Last week, Ramon Ang, CEO of Petron, told AFP the company was "in talks" to potentially purchase Russian oil.

On Thursday, he declined to confirm the arrival of the shipment.

President Ferdinand Marcos said Wednesday that the Philippines was casting a wide net in its search for fuel, with the country's dwindling stocks expected to last only another 45 days.

"We have not only gone to our...traditional oil suppliers, we have tried to explore other sources that are not affected by the war that is ongoing in the Middle East," he said in a press briefing addressing the state of emergency.

"Nothing is off the table. We are looking at everything, everything that we can do."

The United States this month eased some restrictions on sales of Russian crude, allowing countries to purchase oil that was already at sea until April 11.

Kpler analyst Muyu Xu told AFP around 120 million barrels of Russian oil may have been at sea at the time, adding much of it may have already been pre-ordered by Chinese or Indian clients.

On Thursday, the Philippines' Department of Energy activated a 20 billion-peso ($332 million) emergency fund that energy secretary Sharon Garin called a "proactive step" to securing fuel supplies.

Garin said earlier this week that the archipelago nation also planned to boost the output of its coal-fired power plants to keep electricity costs down as the war wreaks havoc with gas shipments.

With the cost of LNG (liquefied natural gas) soaring, Garin said the country would "temporarily" be forced to lean even more heavily on the fossil fuel, the main contributor of climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions from human sources.

She added that top coal supplier Indonesia had placed "no restriction" on the amount the Philippines could buy if it needs to increase imports.

F.Qawasmeh--SF-PST