Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte is putting more pressure on the Department of Energy (DOE) to establish the long-sought strategic petroleum reserve (SPR).
In a statement Saturday, March 5, the former House deputy speaker said the energy department ought to "put its money where its mouth is” and finally set the national strategic SPR plan in motion instead of just endlessly talking about it.
“For nearly two years now, our energy officials have been talking the talk about a national strategic reserve for petroleum products, but they have yet to walk the walk,” Villafuerte said.
Villafuerte said that much to his chagrin, the best that DOE Secretary Alfonso Cusi could say at a virtual news forum this week was that the agency had tapped the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) to conduct a feasibility study on this SPR plan.
Needless to say, the Bicolano lawmaker wasn't impressed.
“Okay, our energy officials are aware of the situation and how things could even turn for the worse, but how could we expect the SPR to be up and running soon enough to address this problem when it is still in the study stage?” Villafuerte asked.
Cusi himself told the media forum that a state-run storage facility would enable the government to bring in additional inventory that could “help arrest the price", and that the already rising pump prices of petroleum products would take a greater hit in the event that the Russia-Ukraine war escalates.
“My only question is: Why are our energy officials seemingly taking their own sweet time to put flesh into this SPR? They should start putting their money where their collective mouth is—rather than just emitting hot air with this blabbering that only contributes to global warming,” the solon further said.
“Our energy officials should start working triple time on the long-planned establishment of a national fuel reserve, more so now when the full-blown Russia-Ukraine conflict has raised fears that the global cost of oil could go up to as high as $120 per barrel in the days or weeks ahead,” Villafuerte added.