Petron sees $600M in annual earnings

Petron Corp., the largest oil refining and marketing company in the Philippines, is projecting earnings of about $600 million a year once the planned expansion of its refinery in Malaysia is completed.

“Once the expansion is finished, we are expecting earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $600 million annually from $20 million [in 2012],” Petron President and Chief Operating Officer Ramon Ang said.

For 2017, the Malaysian business is expected to generate EBITDA earnings of $270 million.

He added that expanding the capacity of the Malaysian refinery will entail an investment of $3.5 billion and would add 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) to its output. The current crude distillation capacity is 88,000 bpd.

Petron is currently running the Port Dickson Refinery, which is located about 90 kilometers from Kuala Lumpur in Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan. It is equipped with a crude distillation unit, a naphtha hydro treating unit, two semi-regeneration reformer units, and a kerosene hydro treating unit.

The complex has amenities such as wastewater treatment facilities, steam generator, cooling water plant, flare and safety relieving unit, crude storage tanks, refined petroleum products storage tanks, as well as spheres for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage.

Petron, which supplies almost 40 percent of the country’s oil requirements, has a combined retail network of almost 2,900 service stations, more than a fifth of which are in Malaysia. Since 2012, the company has rebranded and built an extensive retail network of nearly 600 stations in Malaysia.

The oil company also exports different petroleum and non-fuel products to Asia-Pacific countries including India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Pakistan, as well as to the United Arab Emirates.

Shares of Petron slipped 1.19 percent to P9.17 on Friday.