Flying V earmarks P525M for 2-year expansion

Flying V, one of the more aggressive new players in the downstream oil business, is earmarking about P525 million in the next two years to expand its operations nationwide.

Ramon Villavicencio, Flying V president, said the expansion program will involve constructing additional depots and service stations. "We put on hold expansion plans in the last two years but we have to know because if we don’t, our tendency is to go down, we have to keep pace with competition.

He added Flying V will build three more oil depots costing between P50 million to P100 million, depending on the capacity of each depot. The depots will be established in Poro Point in La Union Cebu City in the Visayas and Cagayan de Oro in Mindanao.

The minimum capacity of each depot would be at two million liters and a maximum of 10 million liters. By the end of the year, the company will open 10 more service stations, mostly in Visayas and Mindanao where it is trying to increase its presence.

Along with the expansion of its oil depots and service stations, Flying V will also be actively expanding its distribution of its new product, a diesel pre-blended coco methyl ester (CME) under the brand name Envirotek Bio-Diesel Premium.

During the product’s launch yesterday at Flying V’s Cainta station, attended by President Arroyo, Villavicenco said the use of coco biodiesel will boost government’s efforts to save on costly oil importations.

Flying V chief operating officer Paul Tanjutco earlier said the company will make the pre-blended CME diesel available in its entire nationwide network of gasoline stations, in phases, starting with Davao City and Metro Manila.

Flying V introduced the first CME pre-blended diesel in the country with the recent launching of Envirotek Bioactiv bio-diesel premium in its service station in Baguio City.

CME and other alternative renewable energy sources are being pushed by the Department of Energy (DOE) under its Philippine Energy Plan to substantially reduce the country’s dependence on expensive imported oil.

The DOE said motorists will be able to generate savings from mileage efficiency amounting to nearly P16 billion from the use of bio-diesel.

Tanjutco said the company’s Envirotek bio-diesel premium is an efficient, clean, and natural diesel additive and could be used for all conventional diesel engines.

"CME is proven to greatly reduce harmful engine emissions. It also significantly increases power and mileage. It has passed intensive product testing by various national and international testing agencies and currently is already widely used in other countries," noted Tanjutco.

Flying V has been pioneering in the development of environment- friendly petroleum products. In response to the requirements set in the Clean Air Act of 2003, Flying V was one of the first oil companies to offer low-sulfur diesel.

Flying V operates over 120 stations, the biggest network of gasoline stations nationwide among the independent oil firms.