PTT of Thailand to expand RP retail network

Thailand-based PTT Philippines Corp. (PTTPC), formerly Subic Bay Distribution Inc. (SBDI), has assured the continued expansion of its retail network in the Philippines as it remains bullish on the prospects of the country’s oil industry.

PTTPC president and CEO Siripong Phoungpaka has expressed this commitment in a meeting with Energy Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla the other day.

Phoungpaka assured Lotilla that "PTTPC would continue to supply dependable, quality and competitively priced fuels to the Philippines."

In addition, PTT has also extended a Yuletide offering with a P2.50 per liter discount on all its fuel products starting 12 noon yesterday until 12 noon of Jan. 1, 2007, in all stations nationwide.

This holiday discount offered by PTTPC is even higher than the P2 per liter oil price reduction offered by Petron Corp., Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp.’s Pamaskong Balato, and Caltex Philippines Inc. for the Christmas season.

In the middle of this year, PTTPC has committed to pour in as much as P4-billion worth of investments in the Philippines in the near term.

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

PTT also changed the name of its trading arm, Subic Bay Fuels Co. (SBFCI) to PTT Philippines Trading Corp. (PTTTC).

PTTPC 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 Zone, 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 as the location for the lubricant plant. 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 capacity of between 5,000 metric tons (MT) to 10,000 MT.

The LPG storage plant is targeted to start commercial operation by 2008 or 2009 in time for the start of PTT’s LPG production in Thailand .

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

He added that part of the five-year plan is the possibility of putting up an ethanol plant as part of the company’s contribution to the promotion of the use of alternative fuels in the transport sector.

Phoungpaka, on the other hand, said of the P5 billion budget for the five-year period, they would start spending about P500 million this year. 

Portion of this budget will go to the construction of additional 50 retail gas stations all over the country in the next two years. To date, PTTPC has 16 gas refilling stations. In the next five to 10 years, they expect to put up some 100 to 200 stations nationwide. 

According to Phoungpaka, 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.

PTTPC’s storage facilities are located in Subic Bay and Clark Field with a 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.