Petron to scale down output

Petron Corp., the country’s largest oil refiner, is expected to scale down its output for almost a month due to the shutdown of one of its oil processing units in Bataan.

In a letter to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) disclosure department, Petron corporate secretary Liberador Villegas said "the APS-2 (atmospheric pipeline steel) process block at our Bataan Refinery has been on emergency shutdown since February 15."

Villegas said the shutdown was caused by technical problems and will require thorough inspection and repair work. He said the unit will be shut down for 24 days.

During this period, he said Petron will be operating its refinery at a reduced throughput of 80,000 barrels per day, down 36 percent from the average refinery throughput of 125,000 per day.

Villegas, however, assured that there will be no disruption of supply to its customers despite the incident.

"Notwithstanding these developments, we would like to assure the market that there would be no shortfall in supply during the period because Petron has maintained an adequate inventory level of petroleum products," he said.

The Department of Energy (DOE) ordered recently all oil refiners and oil companies to set aside some 30 and 15 days minimum level of inventory, respectively. This is consistent with the government’s effort to prepare for the impending war between the US and Iraq. – Donnabelle Gatdula