Petron to invest P800M on eight new service stations

Petron Corp. will invest up to P800 million this year for the construction of at least eight new company-owned and company-controlled (COCO) service stations, a ranking company official said yesterday.

Petron president Khalid Al-Faddagh said the company is allocating about P90 million to P100 million for each station.

He said they have recently inaugurated one COCO station along C-5 Road in Taguig.

According to the official, they expect to complete the construction of similar station in Manaoag, Pangasinan by early February.

Another COCO station, he said, is being built along the STAR Tollway in Batangas. Petron also has one COCO station in Bel-Air.

Al-Faddagh believed that enhanced retail marketing services would further fuel the growth of company this year.

"The real growth is coming from retail services. This is why we want to give the best service through our COCO stations," the official said.

The company expects a net income of P5 billion in 2005. As of end-September 2005, the major oil firm has already registered earnings of P4.8 billion.

Based on Petron’s five-year expansion program, the oil firm expects to build at least 30 COCO stations in the next five years. The program was launched in 2004.

In 2004, Petron established a subsidiary, Petron Marketing Corp. (PMC) to specifically focus on the COCO-related businesses of the oil firm.

The Board of Investments (BOI) approved Petron’s application for prequalification to establish a retail enterprise under the Retail Trade Liberalization Act (RTLA) of 2000 in the fourth quarter of 2003.

Petron, being partly foreign-owned (40 percent owed by Saudi Aramco), was not allowed by the Retail Trade Law to engage in direct retailing.