From a temporary collapse when enhanced community quarantine was enforced in the country, the downstream oil industry is now seeing green shoots of recovery although this is coming at a very moderate pace.Fernando L. Martinez, chairman of the Independent Philippine Petroleum Companies Association indicated that the industry suffered extreme demand plunge of up to 70-percent during the lockdown period; then that eased to 40-percent as the quarantine restrictions were gradually easing.
Toward the yearend, Martinez noted that oil demand may reach as high as 80-percent by end-October, but that will still depend on further re-opening of the economy that the government will be enforcing. And while sales are now on continuing rebound, Martinez sets out prognosis that the inauspicious scenario for the industry may linger until 2022.
The aviation sector had been badly hit in the past months; and until now, travel restrictions all over the world still limit mobility, hence, prolonging the downcast milieu in the industry.