New oil players eat into market share of Big 3

The combined share of new players in the local market for oil products rose to 9.4 percent in the first three months this year, from 8.6 percent last year and 4.4 percent in 1998, according to the Department of Energy (DOE).

The majors -- Petron Corp., Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. and Caltex Philippines Inc. -- remain solidly in control with a combined market share of 90.6 percent in the first quarter down from 91.4 percent in 1999.

Energy officials said the increase in market share by the new players can be attributed to their being able to get a significant share of the one-year fuel supply of the National Power Corp. (Napocor).

Unioil Corp. cornered a sizeable one-year contract to supply fuel for the Bataan thermal plant. Such contract is considered the third largest among Napocor's fuel requirements.

The other players realized higher volumes as they were able to maintain lower prices. Some of them -- Total Petroleum Philippines Corp. (TPPC), Sea-Oil Petroleum Corp., Eastern Petroleum Philippines Corp., and Flying V have also been very aggressive in the establishment of service stations.

The 9.4-percent market share of the new players is equivalent to 2.9 million barrels while the majors accounted for 27.5 million barrels of a grand total of 30.4-million barrels sold in the first quarter of the year.

Energy officials however pointed out that demand for oil products dropped nearly five percent from 135.5 million barrels in 1998 to 130.1 million for the whole of 1999.

Napocor's volume reduction played a significant role in the drop. The government-controlled energy corporation has been increasing its utilization of non-fossil power sources including coal and geothermal.