U.S. Marines and Filipino sailors refuel a KC-130J Super Hercules at Laoag International Airport, Philippines, June 15, 2024. (Nikolas Mascroft/U.S. Marine Corps)
The agency responsible for supplying American forces wants to store millions of gallons of ship and aircraft fuel in the southern Philippines, according to officials from both nations.
Plans for a fuel storage facility in or near the Philippines’ third-most-populous city — Davao, on the island of Mindanao — were revealed in a March 31 solicitation from the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency.
The notice calls for a contractor starting in April 2028 to provide 41 million gallons of fuel storage — enough to handle 23 million gallons of naval fuel and 18 million gallons of aviation fuel.
The contract would include around-the-clock receiving, storing, protecting, testing and shipping U.S. government-owned fuel, the notice states.
DLA Energy commander Navy Rear Adm. George Bresnihan visited fuel storage sites in Australia and Papua New Guinea in September, according to a Nov. 24 news release from the agency.
“DLA Energy exists to provide America’s warfighters with timely and reliable access to fuel,” he said in the release. “Maintaining a decentralized network of fuel support points enables our team to deliver global energy solutions for sustained operational readiness.”
Commercial fuel is stored at Subic Bay, the former U.S. naval base on the Philippines’ main island of Luzon. The Mindanao facility would provide U.S. forces in the region with another refueling point in addition to Subic Bay and Manila.
The proposed Mindanao site will remain under Manila’s ownership and control, Rear Adm. Roy Vincent Trinidad, a Philippine military spokesman, told reporters Friday at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.
The project is covered by existing agreements, such as the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement that grants U.S. forces access to nine sites in the islands, he said, according to a report in the Manila Bulletin that day.
“These will still be Philippine facilities, Philippine-controlled facilities,” he said. “They are designed to support our response capability for [humanitarian assistance and disaster response], maritime security and support, and sustain our forces deployed, not only in the West Philippine Sea, but even in the southern border.”
