MANILA, Philippines -- Oil industry leader Petron Corp. urged the joint task force of the Departments of Energy and Justice, on Sunday, to examine its books to determine, once and for all, whether the company has been overpricing its fuel products.

"Petron has always adhered to transparency and fairness in the pricing of its petroleum products. We have always maintained that as a publicly listed company, our quarterly financial and operating records are open and can be scrutinized by anyone. We have 180,000 shareholders who can attest to this," said Petron president Eric O. Recto, in a statement.

"We have nothing to hide and we are prepared to open our books to the DOE-DOJ Task Force so that they can finally determine whether we are indeed profiteering. There are many groups and personalities who continue to ride on the oil price bandwagon causing confusion and undue expectations among the public. We hope that they (DOE-DOJ Task Force) act on this matter immediately," Recto added.

Petron earlier said that it was in fact expecting a loss of P1.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009 due to the implementation of Executive Order 839, which has frozen retail prices of petroleum products in Luzon to October 15 levels for an indefinite period of time.

"This loss could be even higher if international oil prices rise beyond forecast levels," Recto added.

Recto also recounted that the company has always fully cooperated with the government and has participated in various dialogues with National Economic Development Authority, Congress, and the DOE on the issue of oil pricing.

In the first half of 2008, when international prices hit all-time highs, Petron said it fully cooperated with the DOE when it conducted an independent audit to ascertain whether local prices were reasonable, Recto recalled.

A study conducted by auditing firm SGV and the University of Asia and the Pacific found no evidence of overpricing and cartelization by the oil firms and revealed that Petron's return on equity from 2005 to 2007 was much lower than the interest rates on treasury bills and treasury bonds.

"This basically meant that government financial instruments offered better returns than oil refining and marketing operations. The study also found that local pump prices did not go up as fast as the international prices of crude and finished products during the period," Recto explained.

Another study conducted in 2005 by a six-man Independent Review Committee (IRC) chaired by Charlie Alindada was tasked to review the Oil Deregulation Law and give corresponding recommendations.

The IRC concluded that movements in local prices were mainly due to foreign exchange and international oil price movements; competition in the market clearly existed; and there was no evidence of cartelization, Petron claimed.

"In 2008, Petron reported a net loss of almost P4 billion because of the extreme volatility in oil prices. Again, this proves that at the very least, we are not making undue profits," Recto added.