The Board of Investments approved the registration of Seaoil Philippines’ 4 Storage-Tank Oil Depot in Davao del Sur with a combined capacity of 36.9 million liters to contain both gasoline and diesel fuels.
“This combined capacity is actually more than enough to accommodate the average daily requirement of 73 million liters of fuel nationwide. The additional storage capacity of fuel may allow the company to efficiently manage its inventory levels and avoid external shocks that could lead to oil price hikes or at the very least mitigate its price increase in several parts of Mindanao,” Trade Undersecretary and BoI managing head Ceferino Rodolfo said.
The P287-million project qualified for Bulk Marketing of Petroleum Products under the Investment Priorities Plan – Special Laws list under Republic Act No. 8479 or the Downstream Oil Deregulation Act of 1994.
RA 8479 liberalizes and deregulates the downstream oil industry in order to ensure a truly competitive market under a regime of fair prices, adequate and continuous supply of environmentally-clean and high-quality petroleum products by encouraging the participation of new oil industry players through the provision of incentives.
Seaoil Philippines, a company owned by businessman Francis Yu with Caltex Australia as minority partner, is considered the largest independent fuel company in the country. The company said it was committed to provide quality, environment-friendly and affordable products to the Filipinos.
The approved activity which already started operations in September 2018 provides an additional 36.9 million liters of gasoline and diesel to its existing 41.050 million liters of storage in the southern part of Mindanao which translates into a total of 78.150 million liters of fuel capacity.
Seaoil Philippines offers one of the lowest per liter prices of fuel in the southern part of the Philippines.
The company reported that with the additional depot capacity, its diesel prices could possibly experience a price drop of around 10 percent, or P5 cheaper than the prevailing prices. This is on top of the weekly rollbacks due to the continuing decline in global oil prices.