RP oil imports down

RP oil imports down

MANILA (AFP): Philippine oil imports fell 1.5 percent from a year earlier to 68.631 million barrels in the first half of 1997, the energy department said yesterday.

Philippine refiners also exported 5.98 million barrels of products in the same period, up 42.3 percent from a year earlier.

However, the net oil import bill, or the cost of imports minus exports, rose 3.7 percent to $1.275 billion due to the higher acquisition costs of crude.