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By Euan Paulo C. Ańonuevo, Reporter
PETRON Corp. said its earnings
last year fell slightly due to inventory losses arising from a drop
in petroleum prices.
The Philippines’ largest oil
refiner said that profits hit P6.02 billion, lower than the
P6.05-billion net income registered in 2005.
The lower net income was due to
inventory losses of about P1.6 billion from the “sudden and
steep” drop in crude and finished product prices in the latter
half of last year.
This was, however, offset by
foreign-exchange gains with the strengthening of the peso and
improvements in operating efficiencies.
Petron’s revenues, however,
reached P211.72 billion last year, or a 10.5-percent increase from
P191.48 billion in 2005.
While high prices resulted in the contraction in domestic demand by
7.5 percent, Petron’s domestic sales fell 5.8 percent to 41.17
million barrels.
Petron said that an increase in
export volumes, however, made up for the domestic contraction, as
sales abroad rose 37 percent to 10.91 million barrels. Overall,
sales volume was nearly flat, growing 1 percent to 52.08 million
barrels.
“In spite of a difficult and
highly competitive business environment, we were able to maintain
our profitability while retaining our focus to move our major
programs forward,” Virginia A. Ruivivar, Petron public affairs
manager, said.
Last year the company expanded
its revenue base by tapping nontraditional markets including the
introduction of Petron-branded lubricants in Cambodia and Indonesia.
Petron also expanded its
strategic partnership with Innospec, a global fuel additives
supplier, with the construction of a $2.5-million fuel additives
blending plant in Subic Bay. The plant will serve as a supply hub
for Innospec’s customers in the Asia-Pacific region.
The company also reported that
the construction of its PetroFCC project, under its $300-million
Refinery Master Plan, is more than 50-percent complete and is
expected to be on stream by the first quarter next year.
The PetroFCC will allow the
company to produce more high-value white products and make it the
only local producer of the petrochemical grade propylene.
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