Upgraded refinery improves Petron’s gross margin

The upgraded oil refinery of Petron Corp. in Bataan will help the listed company achieve the full potential of its crude production, which in turn, could give the company a double-digit increase in its profit gross margin and make it less vulnerable to falling global oil prices. Petron president and chief executive officer Ramon Ang said Petron’s Bataan refinery, which cost the company as much US$2 billion to upgrade, will make the company “very profitable” even amidst the volatility in the world oil prices. “The Petron business, even at low oil prices, is still going to be very profitable because of the modernization of the refinery,” Ang said, adding that the refinery is expected to recover as much as 98.7 percent of the crude. “We were expecting the refinery to reach 98 percent recovery by next year in 2016 but it seems that as early as now, September 2015, we are already achieving our target capacity and efficiency,” he added. As a result, Ang said the upgrade should boost the profit gross margin of Petron by up to 20 percent. “For example, say your sales refinery is 500 billion a year and because you have additional 20-percent, you will have additional 100 billion,” he cited. (MBM)