PH looking to US, Russia, others for cheaper crude oil

The government is looking at the possibility of importing cheaper oil from Russia, the United States and other nonmembers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to help ease the impact on the economy of spiraling prices of crude oil in the global market.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said that some government officials had told him about this possibility to arrest high prices of oil products.

“China is getting oil from the stockpile of [the US] and we will see if we could take that same step,” Roque said in a press briefing on Thursday in Marawi City.

“All of this is being explored but it should be understood that the rise in oil prices is not in our hands,” he added.  —CHRISTINE O. AVENDAÑO