Davao-based petrol trader bullish with Cebu venture

CEBU, Philippines - Davao-based Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc., a publicly listed trader of petroleum products, eyes to open around five to eight more stations in the province this year after having opened its first gasoline station here in Cebu which is also the first in the Visayas market.

In an interview with chief operating officer (COO) Romeo B. de Guzman during the opening of its station at SRP, Cansojong, Talisay City he said that, they will be targeting to open around 10 stations every year here in Cebu reaching to around 30 to 50 stations for the next three to four years.

De Guzman said that this target will be distributed in the city and the suburbs as well as some municipalities in the South and the North of Cebu.

He said that Phoenix Petroleum is bullish for expansion even amidst global economic slowdown because they have seen the huge potential of their company to expand all over the country.

He said that as a home-grown Pinoy brand which now has dominated the Southern Mindanao market, Phoenix Petroleum have a fat chance to expand and penetrate to Luzon and Visayas.

“The company was born out of passion for entrepreneurship and we want to become a premier brand in the oil industry. We are growing and we are not going to stop putting more stations because we want to expand our presence to different areas in the country,” he said.

Currently, Phoenix Petroleum has around 100 stations nationwide and 10 percent are company owned while the rest are franchised, six of which are in Luzon and the rest are concentrated in Mindanao including the one owned by boxing champion Manny Pacquiao.

Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc. is engaged in the business of trading refined petroleum products, lubricants, chemicals, car care products on a wholesale basis and they also operate oil depots and storage facilities and allied services.

It has serviced the fuel requirements of various accounts in Southern Mindanao from airline, mining, shipping, tourism, transportation to banana and sugar industries.

The company’s terminaling and hauling services is involved in leasing of storage space in its terminal depot, hauling and into-plane services in Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga, General Santos and Cotabato.

De Guzman, who has 35 years of experience in the oil industry having been previously employed in one of the multinational oil companies operating in the country said that there are still so much growth areas in the industry.

Considering the continuously growing density of vehicles in the streets reflected by the increase in car sales, he said that there is a huge demand for oil in the country.

“Late last year when oil went up, people started to think that the total oil industry was shrinking because consumers started to save and they rather took car pools, taxis and rode public transportation but we anticipate that as prices of oil goes down the volume of vehicles will continue to increase and the demand for oil will also boost up,” said de Guzman.

Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc. was incorporated in 2002 and it become the first independent oil company to be listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange after the passage of the 1998 oil deregulation law.

The company recently signed an agreement to buy out the Bacnotan Industrial Park Corp. (BIPC) and acquired a 3.9 hectare land located inside the Batangas Union Industrial Park and due this quarter is the completion of its P45 million storage depot and terminal facility in the area.

After the terminal is completed, De Guzman said that Phoenix Petroleum will be eyeing to export its products to Singapore and other parts of Asia.