October 19, 2018 | 12:08 am By Janina S. Lim, Reporter
PETRON CORP. is
planning to add a new petroleum refinery in Bataan that will boost its capacity
by 100,000 barrels daily.
“We are set to
recommend to the board of Petron to build a new refinery of 100,000 barrels a
day,” Ramon S. Ang, Petron chief executive officer and president, told
reporters at the sidelines of the 44th Philippine Business
Conference and Expo at the Manila Hotel on Thursday.
“Once the board
approves we can start negotiating with the vendor and so maybe we can start
building by next year,” he added, noting that construction of the facility may
take three to four years to complete.
Mr. Ang said the
company will shell out an initial $3 billion for the additional refinery that
will produce high-grade or Euro 6 petrochemical, diesel and gasoline.
Asked if this is part
of the plant’s planned expansion, Mr. Ang responded in the negative, saying
this is a “grand new plan.”
Last year, Petron
unveiled an expansion project that would boost its current capacity to 270,000
by 2019 from the current 180,000 barrels daily.
Of the new plan, Mr.
Ang said this “will address the gasoline and diesel and jet fuel requirement of
our country.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Ang said
the company can sell diesel at a cheaper price than the diesel that the
government plans to import from Singapore.
This was in reaction to
the Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp.’s announcement of its plan to
import an initial 50,000 metric tons of diesel from Singapore within the month.
“Sabi ko, di na sila
kailangan mag-import kasi habol lang nila tax-free, excise tax-free,
VAT-free. Eh di bumili nalang sila sa Petron. Mas mababa pa ang
presyo kaysa bumili sila sa Singapore kasi wala na silang babayaran na
freight (I told them they don’t need to import because they only want to get it
tax-free, the excise tax-free, VAT-free. They should buy from Petron. The price
would be cheaper than if they buy from Singapore since they won’t have to pay
for freight),” Mr. Ang said.
He noted that Petron’s
prices would be cheaper without the 12% VAT.
“Kung sila mag-import,
di ko alam pano nila idi-distribute. I think kailangan nila
pag-aralan mabuti bago sila magplano (If they will import, I don’t know how
they will distribute. I think they need to study better before they plan
this),” Mr. Ang said.
Shares in Petron
climbed 1.55% or 13 centavos to finish at P8.50 apiece on Thursday.
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