Eastern Petroleum allots P400 million for 2011 capex

MANILA, Philippines - Eastern Petroleum Corp. (EPC), one of the country’s most aggressive independent oil players, plans to allocate some P400 million for its capital expenditure in 2011.

EPC chairman Fernando Martinez said the amount is double the capex budget they have alloted for 2010.

“Our capital expenditure for next year is P400 million. This year, we spent about P200 million, which include the pending P50 million for the Subic mega station,” he said.

Another mega station in the works, he said, is the one in Cavite along the Coastal Road by May next year. “We even acquired half a hectare of land along the Coastal Road,” he said.

Martinez said the capex budget would also cover for the expansion of its small retail network. “Our expansion program targets to put up 10 stations next year to bring our total number of stations to 45 stations by next year,” he said.

He said with the aggressive expansion program, they expect to boost further their sales level next year.

This year, EPC expects its sales revenues to increase by as much as 50 percent. “We only made P2-billion sales revenues last year and this we might reach the P3.2 billion mark this year,” he said.

Martinez said they could not yet give figures for the income levels of the company. “We have yet to project the level of net income for the year. But it will surely be better than last year,” he said.