Among continents, Middle Eastern countries charged the Philippines with the highest dollar cost for imported crude oil in 2018 at $4.4 billion. That metric equals 85.4% of the Philippines’ overall crude oil bill from international sources.
Collectively, fellow Asian nations South Korea ($285.5 million), Malaysia ($259.1 million), China ($45.3 million), Indonesia ($17.8 million) and Japan ($5,000) satisfied another 11.8% of Filipino demand for imported crude oil during 2018.
The 4-digit Harmonized Tariff System code prefix is 2709 for crude petroleum oil.
Top 10 Crude Oil Suppliers to the Philippines
By Country
Below are the 10 countries that supplied 99.2% of unprocessed petroleum oil bought by the Philippines in 2018.
- Saudi Arabia: US$1.6 billion (31.6% of total crude oil imports)
- Kuwait: $1.4 billion (26.6%)
- United Arab Emirates: $1.2 billion (23%)
- South Korea: $285.5 million (5.5%)
- Malaysia: $259.1 million (5%)
- Qatar: $150.9 million (2.9%)
- Russia: $88.5 million (1.7%)
- Oman: $69.5 million (1.3%)
- China: $45.3 million (0.9%)
- Nigeria: $33.7 million (0.7%)
Three Mideast countries (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates) sold roughly four-fifths (81.5%) of all crude oil bought by the Philippines in the most recent reporting period.
Only South Korea (up 16.1%) and Malaysia (up 0.8%) grew the value of its exported crude oil sales to the Philippines from 2013 to 2017.
Fastest-growing crude petroleum suppliers from 2017 to 2018 were Oman (up 126.3%), Malaysia (up 116.7%), United Arab Emirates (up 94.6%), Russia (up 66.5%) then Saudi Arabia (up 54.1%).
Advantages
The Philippines also exports crude oil, shipping $202.7 million worth of unprocessed petroleum in 2018, or 3.9% compared to the cost of crude oil imported into the Philippines.
Filipino crude oil shipments resulted in positive net exports with two of the Philippines’ trading partners namely Thailand ($90 million crude-oil surplus) and Singapore ($53.5 million crude-oil surplus).
Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports. Thus, the statistics below present the surplus that the Philippines earned. In other words, the difference between the value of Filipino crude oil exports and its import purchases for that same commodity.
Positive cashflows confirms the Philippines’ competitive advantage for this specific product category versus Thailand and Singapore during 2018.
Opportunities
The Philippines experienced the highest negative net exports for crude oil trading with the following 10 countries during 2018. The statistics below present the deficit caused by the difference between the value of imported crude oil purchases by the Philippines after considering Filipino exports for that same commodity.
- Saudi Arabia: -US$1.6 billion (net export deficit down -48.1% since 2014)
- Kuwait: -$1.4 billion (no 2014 data)
- United Arab Emirates: -$1.2 billion (up 60.5%)
- Malaysia: -$259.1 million (down -37.3%)
- South Korea: -$226.3 million (reversing a $222.5 million surplus)
- Qatar: -$150.9 million (down -74.2%)
- Russia: -$88.5 million (down -90.7%)
- Oman: -$69.5 million (no 2014 data)
- China: -$45.3 million (no 2014 data)
- Nigeria: -$33.7 million (no 2014 data)
Saudi Arabia gives the Philippines its highest deficit in the global trade of crude oil, although the amount of red ink doing business with Saudi is shrinking. In contrast, Filipino crude oil deficits with the United Arab Emirates grew by 60.5% since 2014 and expanded by 94.6% from 2017 to 2018.
Resources
The World Factbook, East & Southeast Asia: Philippines (People and Society–Population), Central Intelligence Agency. Accessed on April 4, 2019
The World Factbook, Field Listing: Exports – Commodities, Central Intelligence Agency. Accessed on April 4, 2019
Trade Map, International Trade Centre. Accessed on April 4, 2019
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on April 4, 2019
Wikipedia, Petroleum. Accessed on April 4, 2019