Petron eyes growth for 4th straight year

MANILA, Philippines — Oil giant Petron Corp. is hoping to sustain its strong financial performance for the fourth consecutive year by taking advantage of the country’s economic recovery to hike its sales volume.

Petron general manager Lubin Nepomuceno said the firm is focused on continuing the increase in its sales volume and improving its financial performance this year.

“We had a huge improvement in our sales volume last year and we will continue this and hopefully sustain the growth of our volume and income performance,” Nepomuceno said during the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting.

Petron CFO Emmanuel Eraña said 2024 is “shaping up” as “another strong year” for the oil firm following the 16-percent increase in net income in the first quarter, driven by higher sales volume.

“As the nation’s only remaining refinery, Petron has always been the Philippines’ partner in progress, ensuring fuel security and delivering quality products,” he said.

According to Eraña, Petron hiked the combined crude run of its refineries in the Philippines and in Malaysia by 11 percent to “maximize the company’s refining assets.”

The oil firm’s consolidated sales volume in the first quarter reached 35 million barrels, more than a fifth higher than the 29 million barrels it sold in the same period in 2023, Eraña said.

The company’s sales volume was driven by higher production at its refineries in Bataan and Port Dickson.

The higher sales volume boosted the company’s net income by 16 percent to P3.93 billion from P3.4 billion.

Eraña said the firm also saw wider market presence in Malaysia in 2023 with the opening of 23 new service stations. This brought the company’s total service stations to more than 770 in the Southeast Asian country.

In 2023, Petron, which is part of the San Miguel Group, reported a 13 percent increase in combined sales volume in the Philippines and Malaysia to 126.9 million barrels from 112.8 million barrels in 2022.

Petron saw its earnings expanding by half to P10.1 billion in 2023 from P6.7 billion in 2022, marking the third straight year of growth.