Petron expects 2016 profit more than doubling to P18 B

Oil refinery giant Petron Corp. expects net profit to balloon to P15to P18 billion this year on the back of higher sales volume as a result of its refinery upgrade and continued expansion in retail network.

Petron president Ramon Ang said in a briefing yesterday the company has bright prospects for this year.

“If global oil prices do not fall, we are targeting P15- to P18 billion in net income this year,” he said.

Last year, Petron reported a net income of P6.3 billion, more than double from P3 billion in 2014 despite the oil slump in oil prices.

Ang said this year’s significant growth will be driven by the higher efficiency of the newly upgraded oil refinery in Bataan.

The company will now feel the effect of the full-year operations of it $2-billion upgraded refinery, which produces higher value products.

“In the old refinery, our liquid yield was at 66 to 67 percent. After the refinery upgrade, we are seeing yields reach 92 to 93 percent and that’s where our profits are coming from,” he said.

For its retail expansion, Ang said the company will continue to build more gas stations both locally and in Malaysia.

“What we want is to be able to find good locations for our expansion here and abroad,” he said.

“In Malaysia, we are continuing the expansion of our gas station network. We just finished the rebranding of 560 stations,” Ang said.

As of end-2015, there are over 2,200 stations in the Philippines and 570 in Malaysia.