An oil company that is truly Filipino

Celebrating corporate anniversaries is an appropriate opportunity to announce some good news, and Petron Corp. did exactly this when it commemorated recently the 50th year of its refining facility in Limay, Bataan.

Last month, Petron chairman and CEO Ramon Ang made the announcement for a $1.8-billion refinery expansion project that would by 2015 increase the existing complex’s output of petroleum fuel and petrochemicals used to make plastic.

The project, considered to be the company’s biggest and most ambitious investment to date, is intended to make Petron’s refinery as among the best in Asia aside from further enhancing the country’s supply position, and increasing Petron’s capability to supply a growing demand for white products (gasoline, diesel and LPG) and petrochemicals.

Once completed, the refinery expansion project would enable the Bataan refinery to “digest” a wider range of crude oils including those from African sources, thereby giving the refinery greater flexibility to source cost-efficient crude types from any part of the world.

The project will also improve Petron’s operational efficiency by allowing it to fully convert fuel products that are not in high demand to products that are more in demand in the market. More importantly, the refinery expansion will improve the quality of its fuels so that they meet the latest Euro 5 standards aimed at improving air quality in the country.

Having a Filipino heart

Clearly, Ramon Ang and Petron’s management is bullish about the prospects of the oil industry in the Philippines. And, of course, this can be gleaned from the fact that Petron – which is 60 percent Filipino by virtue of the ownership of San Miguel Corporation (51 percent) and individual stockholders (nine percent) – has taken the number one position in the country in terms of sales.

As of end 2010, Petron had already widened its network of service stations to over 1,700, making it the largest in the country. This year, despite a contraction in the local fuels market because of high crude costs, Petron managed to increase its market share.

Sharing with Filipinos

Obviously, having a Filipino heart has helped Petron become the preferred choice by its growing base of loyal customers who have opted to patronize a company closely linked with the Filipino public.

Even if Petron recently announced a P3.4-billion net income during the first quarter of 2012, the pain of having to pay higher prices of gasoline or diesel at the pumps is somehow mitigated by the knowledge that any of its profits will be shared with more than 100,000 individual shareholders who had bought into the company when it went public in 1994.

Even before the Oil Deregulation Act was passed, Petron had already seen the value of opening its ownership base to individual Filipinos – employees, professionals, retirees who invested their hard-earned money by buying shares of stock.

And with the take-over of majority shares in 2008 by Filipino-owned San Miguel Corp., Petron had even more widened its ownership base among our countrymen, and more importantly, the trust of this nation’s majority citizens.

Moving out of Pandacan

It is easy to understand how this Filipino-ness translates to values that put the interest of the country’s inhabitants first and foremost. In the case of its depot in the highly urbanized Pandacan section of Manila, Petron made the investment decision to move out.

This just shows its understanding of how important it is to keep the safety of the growing communities that live around its storage facility. Pandacan residents can look forward to one less oil company operating in their midst in two to three years.

The move out of Pandacan started last year, and will cost over $500 million. But it is also the fulfillment of a promise made by Petron to the residents of Pandacan in response to the community’s clamor for the depot facilities jointly operated with other oil companies to be relocated.

Other commitments to the Filipino public

With the take-over of Ramon Ang and his team at Petron, decisions were made not only to plow back and infuse new money to the oil company’s operations, but also to sustain and maintain an admirable portfolio of social investments cutting across a diverse field that includes education assistance for children of marginalized families to environment projects.

With Tulong Aral ng Petron, a thousand recipients chosen by the Petron Foundation are sent to primary schools, beginning from Grade One. These children are expected to complete their studies all the way to Grade Six.

By adding 1,000 new children every year, this accumulates to 6,000 Tulong Aral ng Petron scholars during any given school year. The beneficiaries not only receive financial assistance for uniforms, supplies and daily allowance, they also are exposed to tutorials, remediation classes and other academic support programs to keep them in school.

For the environment, Petron conducts regular coastal cleanups, tree and mangrove planting, environmental awareness programs and other ecology friendly initiatives especially in areas where they have terminals and depots.

Petron is also a prime mover in the rehabilitation of the La Mesa Watershed, the last remaining forest of its kind in Metro Manila. In 2005, Petron inaugurated the 1.2-kilometer Petron Fitness and Nature Trail and the 2,500-seater Petron Amphitheater at the La Mesa Ecopark inside the watershed.

There are many more other initiatives that demonstrate the company’s willingness to contribute to nation-building and helping other Filipinos in need, and not just by giving dividends to its stockholders.

I am a stockholder of Petron, albeit a miniscule one, and I also hold a very very small number of shares of its major competitor, Shell International. But as a Filipino, I am glad that Petron is leading the way in my own country.

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