Aramco open to building refinery in RP

DHARHAN, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Aramco, the largest oil company in the Middle East, is open to the proposal of Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. to build an oil refinery in northern Mindanao.

Philippine National Oil Co. president Eduardo Mañalac, who was with the small Philippine delegation that visited the oil-rich kingdom, said Saudi Aramco — which owns 40 percent of Petron — and the PNOC have "approved in principle" the joint venture agreement.

De Venecia made the proposal to Aramco with the aim of attracting billions of dollars in major investments for the development of Mindanao.

Mañalac said the expansion of Petron Philippines will be realized with the $250 million in "fresh investments." Petron Philippines currently has a refining capacity of 180,000 barrels per day, primarily for local consumption.

During the three-hour visit in the Aramco headquarters, Saudi Aramco president Abdullah Saleh Jummah told De Venecia and his party that they had instructed Petron-Aramco last Tuesday to undertake a feasibility study on the Mindanao refinery.

If implemented, De Venecia said the project’s investment could amount to as much as $5 billion "easily."

"This will generate more jobs in Mindanao and will benefit our Muslim and Christian brothers in the region," he told The STAR.

Jummah had stressed the necessity of conducting a feasibility study on the second refinery to determine its "optimum capacity" in addressing domestic oil demand and new export capacity.

Mañalac replied the feasibility study would take time and it could be as long as three years before an oil refinery can be put up.

He said the refinery would be the second in the region after a major facility in Limay town in Bataan.

A second Petron-Aramco refinery would make sense, Mañalac said, "if there is a strong export market demand" especially in the Asian region.