PNOC remits P27B to gov’t in 30 years

The Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC), in its 30 years of existence, has propped up the national coffers by almost P27 billion through dividends remitted to the government.

As a government corporation, PNOC is mandated to remit 50 percent of its cash earnings to the National Government. PNOC started fulfilling this obligation when it declared its first cash dividend of P83.69 million in 1980.

PNOC posted the highest remittance in 1994 at P10.6 billion, which includes the P9.5 billion income derived from the sale of its holdings in oil refiner Petron Corp.

In 1996, PNOC kept the Oil Price Stabilization Fund (OPSF) afloat when it infused P10 billion to the ailing OPSF.

Through the years, the company has been a consistent profitable government venture. At present, PNOC’s assets is estimated at P122 billion while its equity is placed at P33 billion.

PNOC president Thelmo Cunanan, in an interview during the celebration of the company’s 30th anniversary, said by 2004, they hope that all the subsidiaries of PNOC will post profits.

"By end-2003, we are optimistic that we can turn around the bottomline of PNOC-Petrochemical Development Corp. (PPDC). We expect that by the end-2004, it will post earnings of P12 million," he said.

"Next year will be a better year for us. As our economy grows in 2004, there will be more demand for power," he said.

PNOC has five subsidiaries: PNOC-Energy Development Corp., PNOC-Exploration Corp., PNOC-Shipping and Transport Corp.,PNOC-Management and Development Corp. and PPDC. It also has stake in Petron Corp. and National Development Co.

Meanwhile, PNOC recently purchased 160 compressed natural gas (CNG) cylinders from Korea to meet the requirements of its fleet of natural gas-run vehicles.

At present, the company only has 20 cylinders supplying the requirements of two shuttle buses, two light vehicles, and six units of Enviro 2000, which consume about 28 cylinders per day.

The purchase took quite sometime since there were no existing local manufacturers. The cylinders were supplied by NK Co. Ltd. of Busan, South Korea at a cost of $64,000.

With enough cylinder supply to gas up the NGVs, the company can easily accommodate requests for field demonstrations and go full blast in the promotion of natural gas as an efficient alternative to transport fuels.