PTT Phils to invest P4B over 4 years

PTT Philippines Corp. (PTTPC), formerly Subic Bay Distribution Inc. (SBDI), will pour in some P3.5 billion to P4 billion worth of investments in the Philippines starting this year up to 2009, a ranking company official said.

During the launching of PTTPC as the new corporate name of SBDI over the weekend, PTT Public Co. Ltd. of Thailand executive vice president for commercial and international marketing oil business group Artasith Pothiapinyanvisuth said they are planning to transfer one of their existing lubricant blending plants in Thailand to the Philippines.

PTT also changed the name of Subic Bay Fuels Co. (SBFCI) to PTT Philippines Trading Corp. (PTTTC) and will be tasked to source products from Thailand, Singapore, Korea and Japan.  It will also sell products to companies located in the Subic Bay Freeport one, Clark Special Economic Zone and other economic zones in the country.

The PTT official said they have yet to identify an area in Metro Manila where to locate the lubricant plant. But he said they would spend about P1 billion for this project.

He said they are also planning to put up a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) plant with a capacity of 5,000 metric tons (MT) to 10,000 MT.

The LPG storage plant is seen to go on commercial operation by 2008 or 2009 in time for the LPG production in Thailand.

"We see an opportunity for us to sell LPG to the Philippines which imports its LPG needs," he said.

The PTT executive said they expect the construction of a five-million liter depot in Cebu to be completed by October and to start commercial operation by November this year. This oil terminal will allow PTT to cater to the petroleum market in the region.

He said part of the five-year plan is the putting up of an ethanol plant as part of its contribution to the promotion of the use of alternative fuels in the transport.

PPTPC president Siripong Phoungpaka said they would be spending about P500 million this year. A portion of this budget will go to the construction of 50 new retail gas stations all over the country. To date, PPTPC has 16 gas refilling stations. In the next five to 10 years, they expect to put up 100 to 200 stations nationwide. 

Phoungpaka said they also want to introduce the new style of service station similar to what they have in Thailand which they call "one-stop-shop" stations.  These stations have unique features like banking facilities aside from the usual locators.

He said they are also looking at the possibility of putting up service stations in the South, North Luzon and Subic/Poro point expressways.

But he said they have yet to resolve the issue of leasing a land.  "We are willing to invest but the problem is how to get the land," he said.

PTTPC’s storage facilities are located in Subic Bay and Clark Field with combined capacity of three million barrels.

Phoungpaka said the expansion program in the Philippines is part of the overall strategy of PTT Group to go global. PTT has extensive experience in petroleum, petrochemical and exploration with market value of more than $24 billion as of end-2005.

"PTT policy now is to go global and we have to expand in Southeast Asia including the Philippines," he said.