Philippines: PTT PCL to Invest in Service Station Network

Artasith Pothiapinyanvisuth, PTTPCL executive vice president for commercial and international marketing for oil business group, told visiting Philippine energy reporters he saw growing demand within the two islands.

He said they were looking at building 200 service stations in the next eight to 10 years which would translate to an at least P3 billion investment (US$63.8 million). One station was estimated to cost at least P20 million. Currently, PTTCL has 34 retail petrol stations. The local subsidiary is expected to construct at least 16 stations in 2009. Two stations are now under construction in Cebu where the company hopes to build 10 service stations before the year end.

Despite the financial crunch, however, Pothiapinyanvisuth said they remained confident in the Philippine economy. "The company policy now is to try to expand cautiously," he said. In Thailand, they took some measures to avert the impact of the crisis in their operations.  He said as part of their cautious action, PTTPCL decided to expand on non-oil business, and were looking at big areas for their retail stations to venture into leasing the space to locators. He said they had held initial talks with restaurant, food chains as well as other and shops.

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