State-owned Philippine National Oil Co. is looking at the “best economic use” for an 11.89-hectare property in Pandacan, Manila once the lease of oil refiner Petron Corp. expires in 2018, an official said.
PNOC president Reuben Lista said the Pandacan property was among the properties conveyed by Petron as a property dividend in 1993.
The property, located on the northeast side of Jesus Street, was leased back to Petron for 25 years starting Sept. 1, 1993 to August 21, 2018.
Lista said Petron, the country’s biggest oil company, expressed interest in the early renewal of the lease agreement for the bulk plants, including the Pandacan property.
The plan, however, hit a snag after the Supreme Court declared as invalid the Manila City ordinance allowing petroleum refineries and oil depots in Pandacan.
Petron dismantled its fuel tanks and maintained only its sales office, health clinic, firefighting activities and laboratory at the site pursuant to the court order.
The Manila City ordinance subsequently reclassified the area where the oil depots were located in Pandacan into high-intensity commercial/mixed use zone from heavy industrial.
“With the aforesaid reclassification, the Pandacan property can no longer be used as bulk plant as originally contemplated in 1993,” Lista said.
“Thus, for PNOC to fulfill its mandate of optimizing the use of the property, PNOC management intends to exclude the property in the renewal of the lease agreement with Petron for bulk plants in September 2018,” Lista said.
He said the Pandancan property would instead be developed “according to its best economic use and development trends in the vicinity.”
The move is a part of PNOC’s plan of exploring the conversion of its properties in Batangas, Manila and Bataan into energy projects and other income generating ventures.
Lista said a technical working group was created for the purpose of creating manpower and other logistics to operate PNOC’s energy supply base in Mabini, Batangas and convert it into a fully operational energy hub.