Thai oil firm invited to expand operations here

JAKARTA, Indonesia—The Philippines has invited the Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT) to expand its operations in the country as a means to lower oil prices.

The proposal was made following a meeting between President Aquino and Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on the sidelines of the 18th Asean Leaders’ Summit here Saturday.

“Recently we have proven that competition does enhance the market,” said Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras.

“It was on this basis that we made the invitation to the government of Thailand to try to encourage more expansion, more investments and more participation of the Thai oil companies in the downstream oil distribution system network in the Philippines,” Almendras told a press briefing here.

He said that the Philippine delegation presented a proposal to the trade minister of Thailand inviting PTT, a major petroleum company in Thailand, “to play a more active role in the retail market of petroleum in the Philippines.”

Having PTT put up more fuel stations in the Philippines may address “the disparity of fuel pricing” by moving other fuel companies to price their commodities competitively or more affordable for consumers, he said.

According to Almendras, only two companies—Petron and Shell—are actively competing with each other as Chevron has started selling its fuel stations.

PTT Phils., a wholly owned subsidiary of PTT, has been in operation in the Philippines for more than a decade. It operates about 43 gas stations all over the country.

Keen interest in PPP

According to Almendras, the Thai prime minister expressed keen interest in having Thailand take part in the public-private partnership (PPP) program of the Philippines during the meeting with Mr. Aquino.

“The Prime Minister was very, very interested, he was literally asking what are the projects, what can we do. The bilateral meeting with Thailand was mostly about PPP, there was a lot of time spent discussing PPP opportunities and how Thailand could come to the Philippines to invest and to share their own experience in PPP,” Almendras said

“They wanted to discuss it some more because they have some ideas and proposals on how PPP worked in other countries,” he said.