PNOC sees Petron, EDC earnings up by 15%

Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) expects the earnings of its top subsidiaries-Petron Corp. and PNOC-Energy Development Corp. — to improve by 10 percent to 15 percent in 2007, a top company official said.

"The year 2007 looks very good for us. We expect good investments from Petron and PNOC-EDC. We see them growing by 10 percent to 15 percent," PNOC president Peter Aquino said.

Petron and PNOC-EDC are two of the publicly-listed firms of PNOC. Petron is the largest oil refiner in the country while PNOC-EDC is the second largest geothermal power producer in the world.

Aquino said Petron chairman Nicasio Alcantara had likewise expressed optimizm on the continued bright prospects for the oil company next year.

"It seems that 2006 is a banner year for them (Petron). It would be much better than last year," Aquino said.

He said the main driver of Petron’s projected improvement in earnings would be exports. "Improvement would be due to the increase in overseas sales," he pointed out.

At present, Petron has the biggest service station network in the industry with more than 1,265 stations nationwide.

As of Aug. 2006, the company controls 34.3 percent of the highly competitive retail market. In industrial trade, Petron has 47.5 percent of total volumes. Overall, Petron continued to dominate the market with a share of 39.1 percent as of end-August this year.

The oil firm also reported that the engineering, procurement and construction works in its petro-fluidized catalytic cracker unit is now over 30 percent complete.

The income of PNOC-EDC, on the other hand, is seen to improve in 2007 as it is expected to start commissioning a 49 megawatt geothermal project in Negros by February. The commercial operation of the new geothermal facility is likely to contribute some P3 billion additional income for the company.

EDC was created in 1976 to accelerate the exploration, delineation and development of indigenous energy resources. A drilling division is consequently formed to carry out EDC’s mission.

At present, EDC is the Philippines’ premier geothermal company with 1,149.4 MW installed capacity spread over geothermal steamfields in Leyte, Negros Oriental, Bicol, and North Cotabato. This represents 60 percent of the country’s total geothermal capacity.