Petron shells out P100M yearly for PUV discount

Petron Corp., the country’s biggest oil refiner, said it is shelling out P100 million yearly to subsidize public utility vehicles (PUVs), as it refutes insinuations that it has been gaining tremendous profits as a result of continued spikes in international crude prices and unduly raising pump prices.

Since 2003, the oil firm has been offering a P1 per liter discount to PUVs in all of its 101 service stations nationwide.

"We wish to assure the public that we adjust our pump prices only when absolutely necessary to reflect our costs. We have also been implementing programs to lessen the impact of high international oil prices," said Petron public affairs manager Virginia A. Ruivivar.

She said nearly 38 percent of Petron’s total net income of P5.73 billion from 2004 to the first semester of 2005 was derived from its sales of refined petroleum products to the export market.

For the full year of 2004, Petron posted a net income of P3.4 billion with P2.04 billion coming from domestic sales while P1.38 billion was accounted for by export sales. From January to June this year, the company earned a net income of P2.131 billion with exports comprising P770 million.

The Petron official said the company has been aggressively pushing its export strategy to take advantage of favorable prices abroad and increase its presence in the region. It is selling various petroleum products such as LPG, gasoline, naphtha, reformate, mixed xylene and reformate to other Asian countries such as Korea, Singapore, Australia and China.

In the company’s stockholders’ meeting last July, Petron president Khalid D. Al-Faddagh attributed the huge profit leap from January to June.