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PETRON Corp. may enter into a build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract
for the relocation of its oil depot in Pandacan, its top executive
said.
Nicasio Alcantara, Petron chairman, said the
company is studying the option, which may reduce the costs of
transferring the refinery, as the Supreme Court has upheld the city
government of Manila’s decision to shut down the Pandacan oil
depot.
The oil depot is jointly operated by large oil
firms Petron, Pilipinas Shell and Chevron Philippines (formerly
Caltex), and supplies a sizeable amount of the country’s fuel
needs and all the lubricant requirements of the transport and
industrial sectors.
Alcantara said Petron has yet to discuss with
the other oil firms the idea of entering a BOT contract for the
depot transfer in order to cut costs. Initial estimates indicate
that oil companies have to shell out P10 billion to P15 billion to
relocate the facilities.
“In the business of hauling, the more volume,
the less cost. But we haven’t decided yet if the relocation plan
that we will submit to the SC will be on a joint or individual
basis,” he said.
He added that a number of companies are engaged
in the business of relocating oil facilities, which the oil firms
may opt to tap.
The high court has given the three oil firms
until June this year to come up with a relocation plan for their
facilities after a Manila ordinance reclassified Pandacan from
industrial to commercial land.
The government may decide in the second half
this year whether to sell its 40-percent stake in Petron held by
state-owned Philippine National Oil Co., Finance Secretary Margarito
B. Teves said.
Petron is the country’s largest oil firm with its 180,000
barrel-per-day oil refinery supplying nearly 40 percent of the
country’s fuel requirements.
Earlier, Saudi Aramco agreed to sell its 40-percent stake in Petron
after the UK-based Ashmore Group tendered a $550-million offer.
-- Euan Paolo C. Anonuevo
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