Published
By Myrna M. Velasco
Energy Secretary
Alfonso G. Cusi is bent on giving mandate to state-run Philippine National Oil
Company-Exploration Corporation (PNOC-EC) to go ahead with its planned P2.0
billion worth of diesel importation from Singapore and will let smaller oil
firms handle product distribution.
He qualified that the
distribution of the imported fuel shall be done “through smaller oil companies
and other bulk buyers.”
The energy chief said
these smaller oil players would then serve as the “selling network” of the
government-sanctioned imported diesel – or for them to retail the diesel
products at the pumps to the end-users.
The PNOC-EC board, in
which Cusi sits as ex-officio chairman, had already given the green light to
the state-run company on the offshore procurement of diesel products.
As sounded off by
PNOC-EC President Pedro Aquino, the diesel to be bought from Singapore can be
dangled to the consumers at a price cheaper by P5.00 per liter.
The Department of
Energy (DOE) and PNOC-EC have been fiercely quizzed though on how they shall
distribute the products to targeted buyers – primarily the public utility
vehicles (PUVs) and targeted industries.
Cusi said the intent of
the diesel importation is for PNOC-EC to “really become part of the supply
chain, so it can understand how markets behave in the deregulated downstream
oil sector.”
On last week’s
counter-offer of Petron to sell lower cost diesel to the government, Cusi said
he would prefer that the leading oil firm would directly reflect that as
discount at its pumps.
“That’s a very good
development, but I am hoping that Petron will instead give that directly as
cost reduction in the products it is selling so consumers would benefit from
it,” he stressed.
The energy chief added
“it can be done better that way, because it will no longer go through the
procurement process of government, which may still involve a very complex
undertaking.”
Cusi has been batting
for unbundling of the per-line-item costs of the oil companies, with him
emphasizing that he wants to know what margins or return on investments the
industry players have been raking in for every liter of gasoline or diesel sold
at the pumps.
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