Petron sees income doubling to P20 B

MANILA, Philippines - Petron Corp. expects to close the year with at least P20 billion in earnings, double of what was registered in 2016, its president and CEO Ramon Ang said yesterday.

He said the figure is the minimum amount attainable this year if crude oil prices remain stable. This as the company’s Bataan refinery produces more high-margin fuels and petrochemicals with lower costs.

“If the price of crude oil is stable, Petron should deliver P2 billion net income per month,” Ang said.

However, the company may see some disruption in its fuel production for the year as the Bataan refinery undergoes maintenance and upgrade in the months of April and May.

“Every five years, you stop the plant for calendar inspection, usually 30 to 35 days. So we will see production to be affected in April and May,” Ang said.

Meanwhile, the loss brought about by the maintenance will be tempered by strong sales growth from its retail network.

“We see volume growth tracking at double digit. If you notice, we keep on growing the market share as we continue to expand our gas station outlets. Even each station is growing volume because of optimization, we’re putting in more pumps,” Ang said.

Last year, Petron’s net income amounted to P10.8 billion last year, versus P6.3 billion in 2015.

In the first quarter, Petron has already registered P5.6 billion net income, its highest quarterly income, as it focused on profitable segments and network expansion both here and abroad.

To support its operations moving forward, Petron is eyeing to upgrade its existing refinery, expand its Malaysian refinery and put up a new refinery in the Philippines.

Ang said upgrading its Bataan refinery would entail an investment of $500 million over the next two years. The upgrade would start in the next few months and will take two years to complete, allowing the company to raise capacity from 180,000 barrels per day to 260,000 barrels per day.

Apart from petroleum products including gasoline, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), jet fuel, kerosene, and industrial fuel oil, the Bataan refinery also produces petrochemical feedstock benzene, toluene, mixed xylene and propylene.

“The propylene, we sell them for domestic. The ethylene, xylene, benzene, we export them,” Ang said. Currently, exports account for 20 percent of company’s revenue.