Thailand: Bangchak Petroleum Petrol Retail Expansion
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Monday, 06 April 2009 |
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Bangchak Petroleum has cut its retail expansion budget back by 5 per
cent from last year to Bt220 million, as economic conditions are
expected to depress oil consumption by 2-3 per cent this year.
The 2009 capital expendi-|ture plan will support the open-|ing of 20
service stations, bring-|ing the total to 1,030 nationwide, and
promotional marketing. Patiparn Sukorndhaman, chief financial
officer, said yesterday that the company expects to return to profit
this year, after losing Bt750 million last year.
Kiatnakin Securities sees Bangchak posting a net profit of Bt4.09
billion this year, thanks to the completion of its product quality
improvement (PQI) programme as well as the hedging contracts that cover
40 per cent of its sales volume.
Due to the PQI programme, Bangchak will have to export diesel and
petrol for the first time. The upgrade of the refining facility to
process higher margin products such as petrol and diesel will be
completed in May.
Then the complex refinery's capacity would be about 100,000 barrels a
day and the volume of high-sulphur bunker oil will decline while the
volume of diesel and petrol will increase, said Yodphot Wongrukmit,
executive vice president.
Bangchak has exported excess bunker oil to China, but that would stop,
while lower-sulphur bunker oil would be shipped to Japan instead, at a
monthly volume of 100 million litres, Yodphot said.
PetrolWorld 020409
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