MANILA — A data from the Department of Energy showed a decline in the country’s oil import, owing to lower import costs amid declining crude prices in the world market.
A total of $4.25 billion in net import bill, or the difference between oil import and exports was recorded from January to June this year.
The figure is lower by 35.9 percent from $6.64 billion in the same period in 2014.
The trend was attributed by the Energy department to the 50 percent drop in the prices per barrel of petroleum and crude products.
The price decline, according to DOE, dragged the total import cost during the period.
The data also showed the drop in the value of oil imports which settled at $2.36 billion million at end-June, a figure that is 39.2 percent lower from $3.89 billion last year.
The country is getting nearly half of its petroleum imports from Saudi Arabia (47.1 percent) and other sources including Kuwait (12.6 percent), United Arab Emirates (10.7 percent) and Qatar (10.3 percent).