Energy Columns in BusinessWorld

Expanding our GDP size and nuclear development July 1, 2025 | 12:02 am My Cup Of Liberty By Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. https://www.bworldonline.com/opinion/2025/07/01/682295/expanding-our-gdp-size-and-nuclear-development/   Last week, on June 26, the Energy Institute (UK) released its annual Statistical Review of World Energy (SRWE) 2025. This has been among my favorite databases and sources of Excel files for many years.   So, I start by comparing the power generation of major economies with large gross domestic product (GDP) size at purchasing power parity (PPP) values, which comes from the IMF World Economic Outlook (WEO) 2025 database.   The top five largest economies in the world in GDP size in 2024 were also the top five in power generation. In GDP size, China is 1.3 times larger than the US, 5.8 times larger than Japan, 6.4 times larger than Germany, 8.9 times larger than the UK, and 27.9 larger than the Philippines.   China’s electricity production in 2024 was ...

Hydrocarbons, pumped storage hydro and economic growth   ENERGY, INFRA AND ECONOMICS - Bienvenido Oplas Jr. - The Philippine Star  June 26, 2025 | 12:00am https://www.philstar.com/business/2025/06/26/2453279/hydrocarbons-pumped-storage-hydro-and-economic-growth   There are a number of good developments in the Philippine energy sector recently. Consider these reports in The Philippine STAR written by Brix Lelis:  “DOE: Drilling operations begin at Malampaya field” (June 21); “Meralco, Gokongweis expand power supply deal” (June 24); “MGen inks supply deals with D&L unit” (June 25); “DOE seeking Chinese expertise on battery storage facilities” (June 25); “‘Philippines, Tiger Cub economies to ignite global oil demand’” (June 25).   We need more hydrocarbons, oil and gas energy to power the Philippines’ high growth trajectory. The number of vehicles especially large trucks and buses that transport heavy loads and millions of passengers will need more oil. Th...

On oil price shocks and inflation, growth and wage coercion June 17, 2025 | 12:02 am My Cup Of Liberty By Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. https://www.bworldonline.com/opinion/2025/06/17/679426/on-oil-price-shocks-and-inflation-growth-and-wage-coercion/   The Israel-Iran war is now five days old, and the immediate impact is a crude oil price hike. From an average of $61-$62 per barrel from early April to early June 2025, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude quickly jumped to $68-$73 per barrel from June 13 onwards. The war looks like it will last for several weeks or months, so elevated world oil prices will be with us.   I checked data on the previous wars in the Middle East, the oil price hikes that followed, and the inflation rates of G7 countries and selected Asian nations at the time. China and Vietnam do not have inflation data from the 1970s so I removed them from the list.   Four periods that had oil price shocks are covered: 1.) 1974, mainly as a result of the big Yom Kip...

On declining inflation and the PhilAtom bill June 10, 2025 | 12:01 am My Cup Of Liberty By Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. https://www.bworldonline.com/opinion/2025/06/10/678022/on-declining-inflation-and-the-philatom-bill/   Last week, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released the country’s inflation rate for May and it was another piece of good news, it was only 1.3%, from 1.8% in March and 1.4% in April. Average inflation for January-May this year is only 1.9%, while that of Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, India, and Japan ranged from 2% to 3.7%.   Even the big economies of America and Europe have higher inflation rates this year than the Philippines, except Italy and France (see Table 1).   The persistent argument here that “high inflation contributed to the defeat of many administration candidates” in the last election is wrong for three reasons.   One, our inflation rate this year was low up to the month of the election itself.   Two, assuming that high in...

Nuclear energy and new DoE leadership May 29, 2025 | 12:02 am My Cup Of Liberty By Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. https://www.bworldonline.com/opinion/2025/05/29/675548/nuclear-energy-and-new-doe-leadership/   Among the important achievements of outgoing Department of Energy (DoE) Secretary Raphael PM Lotilla is building a strong legal and regulatory framework for nuclear energy, including pushing for the creation of the Philippine Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority (PhilATOM), plus submitting the necessary requirements for the ratification of existing nuclear energy-related agreements. Good job, Sir, although the Senate is slow to act on the PhilATOM bill.   The DoE also recently launched a series of Nuclear Energy Awareness Training (NEAT) seminars. The last one was held last week, May 20-22, at the Park Inn by Radisson in Quezon City, organized by the Nuclear Energy Program Inter-Agency Committee (NEP-IAC). The next NEAT is “Philippine Nuclear Energy 101: Powering the Future” on ...

Raising generation kWh per capita, not renewables May 20, 2025 | 12:02 am My Cup Of Liberty By Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. https://www.bworldonline.com/opinion/2025/05/20/673380/raising-generation-kwh-per-capita-not-renewables/   Last week, on May 15, I attended the press conference of the Department of Energy (DoE) presided by Energy Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla. While the good secretary discussed many things, from EPIRA to energy mix and diversification, gas, hydrogen, nuclear and renewable energy (RE), and universal charge for missionary electrification (UC-ME), I noticed that two topics kept popping up — the targeted generation mix towards more RE, and electricity prices.   During the question-and-answer section, I suggested that instead of targeting X percent of RE by 2050 or so, we should target to raise our low power generation, from 1,000+ kilowatt hours (kWh) per capita in 2023 to 1,500, then 2,000 kWh per capita, and so on.   I computed the total power generation...