MANILA, Philippines -- The big three in the oil industry – Petron Corp., Pilipinas Shell, and Chevron Philippines, which operates the Caltex brand -- should also issue prepaid fuel cards to shield consumers from oil price spikes, Senator Francis Escudero said Monday.

Escudero issued the challenge a week after Seaoil, a "small player in a small country," launched the industry’s first prepaid card which would lock the price of gasoline for a given time.

To be sold between June 10 and 21, Seaoil's prepaid fuel card can buy 20 liters of gasoline (G5 X-treme and Unleaded) from any of the oil firm's stations. At a "locked" price of P53.50 per liter, each card will cost P1, 070 and is valid for 11 weeks or from June 10 to August 22.

If Seaoil can do it, "there's no reason why this can't be done by energy giants whose mother companies have been recording super profits," Escudero said in a statement.

"If a scrawny new kid on the block can make the generous offer then oil companies with bigger financial muscle can do no less," he said.

Escudero said "the beauty of the Seaoil promo" was that it would "fire-wall" local oil prices against global price increases but would give out refunds if global prices go down.

Escudero directed his appeal to Petron, which remains 40 percent owned by the government.

"This is one form of imitation that Petron must have no qualms in doing because it serves the public interest and also makes good business sense, "he said.

The senator said that if the Big Three, which sell nine in every 10 liters of fuel in the country, would follow Seaoil's example, it would benefit a lot of Filipino consumers.

He pointed out that Seaoil has 102 stations all over the country, compared to Petron's 1,200, Shell's 800; and Caltex's 850. The three combine for 2,850 out of the 3,369 registered fuel filling stations in January 2006.

He said Shell and Chevron "could also initiate a variant" of the Seaoil prepaid card "and they could not plead poverty in not doing it."

"Pilipinas Shell is part of a global conglomerate which posted a 25-percent hike in profits in the first 90 days of the year, or $9 billion while local Caltex's mother company, Chevron, reported a 10 percent hike in profits, or $5.2 billion for the same period," he said.

($1=P44.41, as of June 13, 2008)