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Thai oil firm opens depot in Cebu, eyes expansion February 8, 2007

Posted by edwayne in News.
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From Sunstar Newspaper Thursday, February 08, 2007

FORESEEING potential boom in Cebu’s oil industry, Thailand’s largest petroleum company opened its first gasoline station in the Visayas.

PTT Philippines Corp. (PTT-PC), a local subsidiary of Thailand-based PTT Public Co. Ltd. (PTT-PCL) that is owned mainly by the Royal Thai Government, opened its first oil depot in Cebu last Jan. 28.

In a document furnished to Sun.Star Cebu, PTT-PC said it chose to open a gasoline station in Lapu-Lapu City due to Cebu’s “highly competent workforce, good infrastructure and sound business environment” — factors that have made the province an “economic powerhouse” in the country.

Siripong Phoungpaka, PTT-PC president and chief executive officer, said the five-million liter depot in Cebu is part of the P3.5- to P4-billion investment that the company will infuse in the country in the next five years under its expansion program.

To further signify its presence in the country, PTT-PC will construct and operate 12 retail outlets in Cebu and has set the construction of 50 pump stations nationwide in the next two years.

As early as now, PTT-PC projects to open 100 to 200 gasoline stations in the country in the next five to 10 years.

The company is also looking at putting up a distribution facility for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), a lube oil blending plant and an ethanol plant in the country. However, the company has not yet determined the sites for the facilities.

Phoungpaka said the company is seriously considering transferring one of its LPG facilities in the country. But the raw materials needed for production, such as butane and propane, are not readily available in the market.

PTT-PC has been in the Philippine oil business since 1996 and has formed a joint venture with Coastal Corp., an American company that later merged with El Paso to undertake the joint operation of an oil storage and terminal facility at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone. The venture is known as the Subic Bay Distribution Inc. (SBDI).

PTT has about four refineries in Thailand, with a total production capacity of 700,000 barrels of oil a day.

PTT-PCL has businesses in Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Hong Kong and China.

So, does this make oil cheap in the country I don’t think so they’re just here to make money from the invisible price monopoly by the Big Three. Well the good news is that consumers petroleum product consumers will have more choices plus this also generate more jobs and opportunity to the general populace.

I just hope by the next a couple of years their will be more people using bio fuel and green cars will be sold here in the country. That would really help keeping the prices of our basic commodities low in that way the inflation will be down also and more people can enjoy their hard own cash by the end of the day.

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