Seaoil wants to be a full service company

MANILA, Philippines - More than just a retailer of petroleum products, Seaoil Philippines Inc., the largest among independent oil players, wants to make a name as a full service company by getting into logistics leasing, warehousing and a provider of third party storage in the region.

Seaoil currently has a fleet of 11 vessels that traverse domestic seas; it operates seven depots plus a number of tankers which it can rent or lease out to other independent player and even the Big Three oil players when not in use for Seaoil’s operations.

“We would like to push more forcefully at bulk distribution and tap more clients for this line of business, including leasing storage spaces particularly in the light of the full implementation of the BioFuels Act which would now force companies to scout for companies leasing out bulk handling and storage services like Seaoil,” said Stephen Yu, Seaoil’s chief operating officer, the man on top of the logistics operations.

Most of them would be forced to lease as it would take time for them to build their own storage and handling systems, not to mention the huge investments they entail, Yu said.

This early, we foresee that we need to lease out half of our storage and handling capacities to other parties as we have built more than enough logistics and warehousing capacities for our own requirements, Yu said.

Yu said his dream is to see the Philippines becoming a model of third party storage and logistics or a hub for petrochemicals and biofuels in the future as he said he would make sure that Seaoil becomes a major player in this dream.

Just last December 2008, Seaoil obtained its Quality Management System (ISO 9001:2000) certification from Geneva-based International Organization of Standards.

With this certification, Seaoil expects to attract more investors for its expansion programs and benefit from the seal of excellence given by ISO in selling its various products and services, said Yu.

“With the ISO we are going to attract new international clients to do business with us, particularly in the area of logistics, plus it would be a lot easier for us to market our services.”

Seaoil’s marketing director Arturo S. Cruz said the seal of excellence elevates the company to the level of prominence of ISO 9001: 2000- certified companies like Fujitsu Philippines; Holcim Phils., Gardenia Bakeries Philippines Inc., Canon Marketing Philippines Inc., Jollibee Foods Corp. and Siemens Philippines.

Seaoil intends to expand not just its petroleum retailing operations but also warehousing and production of petrochemical liquid products which have a rapidly expanding markets and applications here and abroad, Yu said.