Total Phils sets aside P225M for 15 new retail stations

Total Philippines Corp. plans to spend P225 million to put up additional 15 retail stations this year.

Total president and managing director Anna Whitehouse told reporters that they expect increase the number of the company’s retail station from 75 in end-2005 to 90 this year.

Of the targeted 90 retail gas stations, Whitehouse said 55 will be dealer-operated while 35 will be company-owned.

At present, Total operates two service stations in Iloilo; 15 in Metro Manila; 11 in Pampanga; eight in Laguna; seven in Cavite; six each in Bataan, Tarlac and Pangasinan; five in Bulacan; four in Batangas; two each in Baguio and Nueva Ecija and one each in Zambales, Bicol, Rizal, Lucena and Camarines Sur.

To date, Total accounts for 3.4 percent share of the market for petroleum/fuel products; 8.5 percent share in liquefied petroleum gas (LPG); two percent for lubricants. Overall, it corners 4.3 percent of the country’s oil industry.

Total also joined the big 3 oil majors in putting up retail station in the country’s expressways.

In January last year, Total constructed a $3- million retail station in the northbound side of South Luzon expressway in Laguna.

Whitehouse said they would continue to invest in network expansion despite a projected flat growth this year.

Total is the world’s fourth largest publicly-traded oil and gas integrated company. In the Philippines, after joining the industry in 1998 with the passage of the Oil Deregulation Law, Total is also considered the fourth largest.

The company operates a $20-million oil depot and international terminal facility with 58 million liters capacity in Mariveles, Bataan.

It also runs a $5-million Manila fuel depot in Manila Harbor Center in Tondo with nine to 28 million liters capacity.

Total also shares an LPG terminal with Shell Petroleum N.V. located Tabangao, Batangas with capacity of 45,000 MT.

In 1999 and 2000, the company opened LPG refilling plants in Taguig and Pasig, with investments of $5.5 million and P20 million, respectively.

Total is Europe’s No.1 refiner and marketer and no.1 in Africa with oil and gas production reaching an average of 2.6 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2004.