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FLYING V is set to put up another oil depot in Cagayan de Oro City
to support its retail network across the country.
In a briefing, Ramon F. Villavicencio, Flying V
chairman, said the company will soon inaugurate its eight depot in
the said city in Mindanao.
“The depot’s construction has just started
and will be finished soon,” he said.
The new facility is expected to help support
Flying V’s 168 pump stations across the country. The company
expects to raise its network to 200 this year.
The new addition to Flying V’s depots will
have a storage capacity of about 20,000 tons to 23,000 tons at a
cost of about P100 million.
Flying V’s other depots are located in Poro
Point, Clark Economic Zone, Manila, Mandaluyong City, Batangas, Cebu
and Davao.
Last year, Flying V constructed its seventh
depot in Davao, which has a 60-million liter capacity and includes a
pier for receiving petroleum products from tankers.
The facility, which cost about P500 million to
P600 million, was financed through the company’s internally
generated funds.
Paul Tanjutco, Flying V BioFuel Center director,
said the company is looking at producing ethanol from the coconut
tree to help find a solution to the soaring prices of oil in the
world market.
“We’re in the stage of studying it and
producing it in our laboratory. After laboratory stage, we will go
into our pilot plant that will be followed by testing. We’re
looking at putting up our own refinery. But this will be much
simpler because the coconuts are there,” he said.
Tanjutco said the proposed project is unlikely
to adversely affect the country’s coconut supply, adding the
ethanol eyed would be from the sap of the coconut.
The project is expected to take off in the next
two years, after Flying V has ironed out its financial viability, he
added.
-- Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo
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