BUTUAN CITY—The Philippines is seventh in the world with the most expensive oil price, an official of the Department of Energy (DOE) said.

Hong Kong has the highest price of oil, followed by New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, Thailand, China, Philippines, United States, Indonesia and Malaysia, said Edmar Derla, officer-in-charge of the DOE Energy Industry Management Division.

In a stakeholders’ forum held here Thursday, Derla said that in 2003, Petron dominated the country’s market share in the oil industry, followed by Shell and Caltex-Chevron.

As to the demand of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), Mindanao has the lowest demand compared to Luzon and Visayas “because Mindanao has more woods to be used as firewoods,” he said.

Oo the increase of LPG prices, he said, “This happens because we have more demands than the available supply,” the official added.

Derla said the country has five importers of LPG.