Pilipinas Shell reports P1.5-B profit for 1st half

Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. (Shell) reported yesterday an unaudited net income of P1.5 billion for the first half of 2002, almost double the P800 million registered in the same period last year.

Shell external affairs manager Robert Kanapi attributed the increase to reduced borrowings, which led to lower interest expense, and to lower cost of sales.

For the second quarter of 2002, the company registered an income of P900 million to add to the P600 million posted in the first three months of the year.

Total sales grew by two percent from 10.5 million barrels in the first quarter to 10.7 million barrels in the second quarter.

Shell’s net income for the first semester is higher compared to Petron Corp. which reported an income of P1.24 billion for the six-month period.

Petron and Shell have been in a close contest for the leadership in the oil industry. For the first five months of 2002, publicly-listed Petron Corp. had regained its market leadership from Shell.

Philippine Institute of Petroleum (PIP) data show that from January to May, Petron had a market share of 33.3 percent compared to Shell’s 32 percent.

In the first half in 2001, Petron, partly-owned by the government, was second only with 33.5 percent as against Shell’s 33.7 percent.

In terms of sales volume, Petron sold over 16 million barrels during the first five months this year compared to 15.575 million barrels by Shell.

For the month of May alone, Petron was able to sell 3.66 million barrels of oil per day for a 35-percent share of the market versus Shell’s 3.3 million barrels or 31.7 percent.

Caltex Philippines Inc. remained at third with a 22-percent share of the market, slightly higher than the 21 percent in the same period last year.

New oil players continued to eat into the local oil market with a combined 12.8-percent share for the five-month period in 2002, as against 11.5 percent in the comparative period in 2001.