Petron Corp. is confident it would be able to reopen its Bataan refinery in June, following the registration of the facility with the Authority of the Freeport of Bataan (Afab).
“Nag-aantay na lang kami ng timing. May chance na mapatakbo na iyun,” said Petron President and Chief Executive Officer Ramon S. Ang.
Petron temporarily ceased its 180,000- barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery operations in Bataan last February 10. During the temporary shutdown, Petron intends to conduct maintenance activities on key process units at the refinery. It informed the Department of Energy that the shutdown would last four months.
Ang said it would take around four months to complete all documentation needed. “I think aabot iyan siguro. It will take 4 months kase inaayos pa ang mga papers including opinion and approval from the BIR and customers, etc..”
Ang said last year that the refinery closure could be permanent unless government provides a level-playing field for oil importers and refiners.
He said the registration with AFAB would partially address Petron’s tax concerns but not fully solve the problem. Its accreditation with the Bataan Freeport means tax perks.
“It can help, but it won’t necessarily overcome all the problems, because the problem is the low consumption of fuel, of demand. Halos wala na,” said Ang, referring to refining margin.
He said Petron would continue to incur losses this year but not as much as last year.
The oil firm posted a net loss of P11.4 billion in 2020, from the previous year’s P2.3-billion net income, as revenues plummeted by 44 percent to P286 billion.
“Our demand is low, fuel demand is very low,” he said.
Despite this, he said Petron will continue to expand its retail network, which has around 2,800 service stations. “We will continue to expand our network especially if there’s a good location.”
Petron’s operations in Malaysia, he said, is “much better than the Philippines.”
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