Petron willing to support naphtha plant

Petron Corp. confirmed over the weekend its interest in supplying raw materials to the proposed naphtha cracker plant.

The country's leading oil refiner also confirmed that Saudi Aramco Co. of Saudi Arabia (Aramco) had indicated its willingness to also sell raw materials.

Petron chairman and chief executive officer Jose Syjuco Jr. told newsmen that Aramco is offering one of the lowest priced raw materials for what could be the country's first naphtha cracker.

Syjuco added that Petron's refinery is prepared to supply the initial needs of the plant while Aramco will only enter the picture if there is an extra demand.

Likewise, he said the refinery in Bataan has still enough space to house the proposed plant if necessary. Naturally, that would be available as long as the plant will get its supply from the Petron refinery.

"But government must give full support to the project," Syjuco said. "That means fiscal incentives like income tax holidays and exemption for imported capital equipment, as well as clarity in the tariff differentials."

A consortium is perceived to be in the embryo state as all the interested parties have been meeting in the past few months. The interested parties are JG Summit, the Chinese Petroleum Corp. (Taiwan), Itochu Corp. (Japan), the Petroleum Corp. of Asia and Pacific (Petrocorp), Sumitomo Corp., and Petron.

Petrocorp is a consortium composed of Japanese trading giants Mitsubishi and Sumitomo, Kellogg Brown & Roots of the US, and British Petroleum.

Representing the Philippine government are the Philippine National Oil Co.-Petrochemical Development Corp. (PPDC), the Department of Trade and Industry/Board of Investments (DTI-BOI), and the Department of Energy (DOE).