In a statement Perez said, “A joint oil stockpile was among the measures to be considered by the 10-member regional grouping and its North Asian dialogue partners to enhance energy security.”

“On energy security, [Asia prefers] to not being overly dependent on one source of fuel. Diversifying the source countries from which Asia gets its oil and having various modes for transporting fuel [is] important,” added Perez who admitted he would be pressing for the Filipino Government’s plans to convert the former US naval base at Subic Bay into Asia’s strategic oil reserve facility.

The ASEAN call for a regional stockpile comes on the back of a Japanese plan mooted last year which called for the ASEAN countries to follow the European model of having emergency stockpiles.

Perez, however, believes this would not work.

“Since China and Japan compete for long-term oil supplies, both countries and South Korea prefer to maintain a national petroleum stockpile. We will try to bridge the divergence between these two points, [however],” said Perez.