Unioil willing to close its Pandacan oil depot

Unioil Petroleum Philippines Inc. is looking at the possibility of closing its Beata depot in Pandacan in line with the call of the Department of Energy (DOE) for a so-called joint operation agreement among new oil players similar to that forged by the "Big 3" oil firms for their Pandacan oil depot.

"Unioil fully supports government’s effort to ensure safety and security in the operation of oil depots in Metro Manila. In this regard, we wish to assure the DOE and Manila City Hall of our willingness to scale down or even terminate our operations at the Beata depot in Pandacan to pave the way for a sharing scheme with other industry players," Unioil Lawrence V. Luang said.

At present, Unioil leases facilities at the Beata depot owned by Nagtahan Terminas Inc., which is also located in Pandacan, but not part of the facilities owned by the three major oil firms.

Luang said Unioil has in fact scaled down to 30 percent the capacity utilization of its Beata oil terminal. Aside from Unioil, lessees in the Beata depot are: Petrolino, Jetti, Uno Fuel, Yvette Marketing, Gulf Oil, Bal Trading and Peak Star.

The Unioil official said he looks forward to discussions to be initiated by Energy Undersecretary Jose Emmanuel De Dios on how the new players can fit in the proposed sharing scheme. "This DOE initiative is welcome to us because streamlining of depot operations opens opportunities for cost sharing on security measures that we must put in place," Luang said, adding that government must, in turn, ensure that all concerned——not only oil industry players——respond to the need to improve the general welfare of communities hosting industrial facilities.

Totalfinaelf Philippines Inc., declined to comment on the proposal. "We have to determine first what the DOE means by sharing," Total spokesperson Rona Quejada said.

"The DOE hasn’t spoken to us yet about the details of such proposal. There are various ways of sharing. We have to know if we will just share the facilities or share the cost of providing security," she said.

Quejada said Total runs its own oil terminals in Mariveles and in Manila Harbor. She said they will delay the operation of their Manila depot to ensure the safety of the facility. Phase I of the Total oil depot is expected to be operational by end-December this year but is going to be moved to first quarter of 2003. Total has invested P700 million to put up 10 tanks with a combined capacity of 900 million liters. – Donnabelle Gatdula