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REPUBLIC ACTS



Republic of the Philippines
Congress of the Philippines
Metro Manila

Tenth Congress


REPUBLIC ACT NO. 8180
March 28, 1996

AN ACT DEREGULATING THE DOWNSTREAM OIL INDUSTRY, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled:

CHAPTER I
GENERAL PROVISIONS

Section 1. Short Title. - This Act shall be known as the "Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act of 1996."

Sec. 2. Declaration of Policy. - It shall be the policy of the State to deregulate the downstream oil industry to foster a truly competitive market which can better achieve the social policy objectives of fair prices and adequate, continuous supply of environmentally-clean and high-quality petroleum products.

Section 3. Coverage. - This Act shall apply to all persons or entities engaged in any or all the activities of the domestic downstream oil industry, as well as persons or companies directly importing refined petroleum products for their own use.

Sec. 4. Definition of Terms. - For purposes of this Act, the following terms are hereinbelow defined:

a) Downstream oil industry shall refer to the business of importing exporting, re-exporting, shipping, transporting, processing, refining, storing, distribution, marketing and/or selling, crude oil, gasoline, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), kerosene, and other petroleum and crude oil products;

b) DOE shall refer to the Department of Energy;

c) Board shall refer to the Energy Regulatory Board;

d) Person shall refer to any person, whether natural or juridical, who is engaged in the downstream oil industry;

e) Petroleum shall refer to a naturally occurring mixture of compounds of hydrogen and carbon with a small proportion of impurities and shall include any mineral oil, petroleum gas, hydrogen gas, bitumen, asphalt, mineral wax, and all other similar or naturally-associated substances, with the exception of coal, peat, bituminous shale, and/or other stratified mineral fuel deposits;

f) Crude Oil shall refer to oil in its natural state before the same has been refined or otherwise treated but excluding water, bottom substances and foreign substances;

g) Petroleum products shall refer to products formed in the course of refining crude petroleum through distillation, cracking, solvent refining and chemical treatment coming out as primary stocks from the refinery such as, but not limited to, LPG, Naphtha, gasolines, solvent, kerosenes, aviation fuels, diesel oils, fuel oils, waxes and petrolatums, asphalts, bitumens, coke and refinery sludges, or such refinery petroleum fractions which have not undergone any process or treatment as to produce separate chemically-defined compounds in a pure or commercially pure state and to which various substances may have been added to render them suitable for particular uses: Provided, That the resultant product contains not less than fifty percent (50%) by weight of such petroleum products;

h) Wholesale Posted Price (WPP) shall refer to the ceiling price of petroleum products set by the Board based on a formula using the Singapore Posting:

i) Singapore Import Parity (SIP) shall refer to the deemed landed cost of a petroleum product imported from Singapore at a free-on-board price equal to the average Singapore Posting for that product at the time of loading;

j) Singapore Posting shall refer to the price of petroleum products periodically posted by oil refineries in Singapore and reported by independent international publications; and

k) Basel Convention shall refer to the international accord which governs the trade or movement of hazardous and toxic waste across borders.

Sec. 5. Liberalization of Downstream Oil Industry and Tariff Treatment. - a) Any law to the contrary notwithstanding, any person or entity may import or purchase any quantity of crude oil and petroleum products from a foreign or domestic source, lease or own and operate refineries and other downstream oil facilities and market such crude oil and petroleum products either in a generic name or its own trade name, or use the same for his own requirement: Provided, That