TWO foreign groups are keen on putting up oil refineries in the country, according to the Department of Energy (DOE).

“There are proposals. Actually there are two groups that said we are interested if the environment is correct we are willing to invest,” Jose Rene Almendras, DOE secretary, said.

Under the Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act of 1998 or Republic Act No. 8479, oil companies are only required to inform the DOE of any price movements a few hours ahead of implementation.

Amid criticism that oil firms’ were profiteering from their price movements, the DOE earlier required them to also submit importation, inventory and other reportorial requirements. Almendras said that among the issues aired by the two groups that are mulling putting up refineries in the country is government’s monitoring of international oil prices.

“The correct environment is allowing free enterprise to function. The accusation is I am not following the Oil Deregulation Law by capping increases,” he said. Despite this, the DOE chief said that they have already prepared a memorandum of agreement for the land where the investors could put up their refining facilities.

“Of course that is going to be a few years from now,” he added. The country currently only has two oil refiners, Petron Corp. and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., which import their crude supply mostly from the Middle East. The two corner roughly two-thirds of the local oil market, the rest of which are controlled by importers of finished petroleum products, primarily diesel and gasoline.

As such, security of supply and stability of prices in the domestic market are weighed on heavily by market conditions abroad such as the recent staredown between Western powers and Iran that threatens to affect key trade routes in the Arabian Gulf. Bulk of the country’s fuel supply, at around 80 percent of the total, passes through this area. Although the country’s refiners could always look for other suppliers, their facilities may not be configured to process crude besides oil from the Middle East.

“I hope people realize that there are certain things laid out by God: oil quality vary and refining structures and process depend on it. We don’t even refine our own oil. We have to ship them out because we couldn’t refine the oil we produce. Our refineries are not configured to do that,” Almendras said.