Big 3 may bid for additional sites along expressways

The Big Three oil companies are planning to participate in the bidding for the remaining slots allocated by the Philippine National Construction Corp. (PNCC) in the expressways.

Petron Corp. president Motassim Al-Ma’ashouq said they are interested to participate in the bidding to be conducted by PNCC this quarter. "If the opportunity presents itself, yes (we will bid)," Al-Ma’ashouq said.

The Petron official said they are just waiting for the bidding guidelines. "We don’t have details yet but we signified earlier that we encouraged opening up the expressways to all the industry players and that should include Petron," A-Ma’ashouq said.

Al-Ma’ashouq said, "so if the opportunity presents itself in the future then hopefully we would like to be there."

Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. country chairman Eliseo Santiago echoed the sentiment of Al-Ma’ashouq that everybody should be allowed to participate in the PNCC bidding. "It should be open to everybody," he said.

Santiago said they are now in the process of selecting possible locations for the additional service stations in the expressways. "We will look for sites. Honestly, I should not say where we intend to put up stations. There are not a lot of opportunities anyway," Santiago said.

According to Santiago, there are only a few slots available for those who will be interested to put up service stations. "At most, at the current view of restrictions, you can have one in the south and one going north and another one in Clark. At most three or four for the total additional stations," he said.

Santiago said they have to study very carefully the company’s strategy on these additional service stations in the expressways. "We don’t know where. You cannot have too many because it’s unsafe to have a station every kilometer. That is why we have restrictions of every five kilometers (where we can put our stations)," the Shell official added.

Caltex Philippines Inc. said they will study first the prospect of having additional service stations in the said areas.

Eastern Petroleum Corp. chairman Fernando Martinez said they have signified interest to invest about P100 million to put up of a one-hectare service station in the South expressway near the Sta. Rosa exit.

Flying V’s Ramon Villavicencio said they do not intend to bid for the lots available in the expressways. "I don’t think it’s a good business sense. If I have P120 million I will just put up more service stations around the country rather than concentrate in one area," he said.