Flying V, one of the most aggressive independent oil firms run by the Villavicencio family, is now holding talks with the Venezuelan government for a possible petroleum distribution agreement.
Paul Tanjutco, Flying V managing director, said the discussions are still in the preliminary stages.
“We’re very much in to it now, I can’t say that we’re at the final stage now. But we are very deep in the past couple of stage. Hopefully, the Venezuelan oil from China will come to Manila with Flying V as its distributor. Hopefully, it would be cheaper, Tanjutco said.
Venezuela chrge d’affaires Manuel Perez D’ Iturbe, in a separate interview with reporters, confirmed the ongoing discussions with Flying V.
“We hope Flying V will be a possible distributor for Venuzuelan oil,” the Venezuelan government official said.
Asked if their oil will be priced competitively, D’ Iturbe said “We have the preferential tariff because for a revolutionary government the oil is the only business – the one social.”
“We have preferential tariff with different organization. For instance, in US we have a preferential price for the poor people in Massachusetts, in the Bronx, Chicago, Illinois,” he said.
D’ Iturbe said they can afford to give preferential prices as they are well known in the oil business.
“We have a very big Venezuelan company in the US – the Citgo that has eight refineries and 14,000 gasoline stations,” he said.
According to the Venezuelan officer, the possible tie-up with Flying V will form part of the country’s efforts to forge partnerships with other nations.
“It’s more of purely a polarity relation. Before President Chavez, Venezuela only has one relation between the US and Venuzuela. Today, we have very more relations with US, Spain, Portuguese, Russia, Libya, and Iran as well as important relation with China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Philippines,” he said.
D’ Iturbe said they have also yet to decide if a refinery business could be part of a long-term plan for the Philippine oil market.
“I don’t know whether Venezuelan oil companies would enter into the refinery business,” he said.
But the official said they have started selling their products to the Philippines and this is a start of something fruitful in the future.