‘Big 3’ seeks more time on Pandacan oil depot

The ‘Big 3’ oil companies will continue to convince the Manila City government to allow them to scale down their Pandacan oil depot until early next year.

"We remain committed to the memorandum of understanding (MOU) that we signed with the Manila City government. But we will need more than three months to conduct our sealed down of operations," Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., external affairs general manager Roberto Kanapi said.

The city government, heeding the call of the National Security Council and the Department of Energy (DOE), granted a three-month permit to allow the oil firms – Petron Corp., Pilipinas Shell and Caltex Philippines Inc. – to operate in the Pandacan oil terminal.

During this three-month period, the city government will conduct public consultations to enable them to hear the views of commercial parties on the issue.

Kanapi said they will use the public hearings to explain why they will need more time to scale down the Pandacan oil facility’s operation. "We have more than sufficient data from international experts to back up our claim that we need more than three months to scale down our operation in the oil facility," he said.

Of the committed 28 tanks to be dismantled, the three oil firms have torn down 14.

According to Kanapi, they will be able to dismantle only three tanks within the three-month period. These three tanks will include the last of the three LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) spheres of Shell. "The last LPG sphere is the most crucial. And we will decommission that within the 90-day reprieve," Kanapi said.

He said they have started to work on the green safety buffer zones both on the Petron and Shell side.

Kanapi said they have also come up with a basic agreement for the establishment of a joint venture company to integrate operations at the terminal. "We firmly believe that the Pandacan terminal scale down project is a model of cooperation the serves local and national interests. We are looking forward to working with all stakeholders to guarantee the success of the project," Petron corporate communications manager Virginia Ruivivar said.

Marian Catedral, corporate affairs manager of Caltex, said "we will continue to work proactively with our industry counterparts to ensure that the Mayor’s objectives of providing a safe, secure and green environment for the people of Manila will be achieved."