Cambodia weighs oil stockpile as global price nosedives: PM

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday that the government is studying the possibility to purchase petroleum for a stockpile as global oil price is going down.

"I have recommended Economy and Finance Minister (Aun Porn Moniroth) to study the possibility to buy petroleum for a stockpile as oil price falls, so when it goes up again, we will have an oil stockpile for use," he said during a graduation ceremony of about 1,500 students at the Royal University of Law and Economics.

"For us, as a non-oil producing country, we want to see such low price of oil," he said. However, the prime minister predicted that petroleum price will bounce back in the future.

A liter of regular-grade gasoline goes for 3,600 riel (88 U.S. cents) at most petroleum stations in Phnom Penh capital on Tuesday, down 30.7 percent from 5,200 riel (1.28 U.S. dollars) in October last year.

Global oil prices have plummeted more than 35 percent since October due mainly to weak demand from countries with struggling economies and increasing U.S. production. Brent crude, a benchmark for oil prices, was trading at 52.86 U.S. dollars a barrel on Monday, compared with 90 U.S. dollars in late October.

According to the figures of the Ministry of Commerce, Cambodia consumes between 1.5 and 2 million tons of petroleum a year, which are entirely imported from Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand as its seabed's oil and gas reserves have not been exploited yet. Endi