Total invests $15M for North Harbor oil depot

New oil player TotalfinaElf Petroleum Corp. is plowing in $15 million (rough P750 million) for its oil depot at the Manila North Harbor designed to be fully operational by May 2003.

With a maximum capacity of up to nine million liters, the oil depot could accommodate the reserve requirements of other new players which may have been displaced by the phaseout of the Pandacan oil depot.

"TotalfinaElf is always open to commercial discussions," said Jeff Attwood, the company’s president and managing director.

That means other new players can utilize the facilities of TotalfinaElf’s oil depot at the Manila Harbor Center Industrial Park on a commercial or business arrangement.

Attwood also indicated that the capacity could be increased by another 7.5 million liters within the next two years or between 2003-2004 depending on the demand of the market. Phase II of the two-hectare Manila oil depot project would increase capacity to almost 17-million liters.

When completed, it would reduce its operational costs considerably since TotalfinaElf moves fuel from its Bataan depot via sea transport to several points in Metro Manila for the National Capital Region (NCR) market.

The issue of oil depots became a major issue after the Sept. 11 disaster in New York, which prompted Manila Mayor Lito Atienza to call for the dismantling of the Pandacan oil depot.

This led to a compromise memorandum of agreement between the local government and the three oil majors, namely Petron Corp., Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., and Caltex Phils. Inc.

Last week, the Department of Energy (DOE) opened the prospect of the new players joining forces in putting up a common depot much like the accord forged by the majors.

However, the leading "new" players like Unioil Petroleum Corp., Eastern Petroleum Corp., and TotalFinaElf operate their own depots either within Metro Manila or in Luzon. Unioil and TotalFinaElf have depots in Bataan while Eastern operates one in Pasig.

"But there are still smaller players that have requirements that may not make it economical to operate a depot but rather more practical to enter into a business arrangement with the existing depots of fellow new player," TotalFinaElf officials said.