Aquino urges Thai oil company to operate in PH

JAKARTA, Indonesia—The Philippines has asked the Thai government to have the Petroleum Authority of Thailand or PTT expand its operations in the country in a bid to lower oil prices.

The request was made after President Benigno Aquino met with Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on the sidelines of the 18th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Leaders’ Summit on Saturday.

“Recently we have proven that competition does enhance market,” Almendras said in a news briefing after the bilateral talks. “It was on this basis that we made the invitation to the government of Thailand, through the Minister of Trade 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 said that 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.

He said that, as things stand now, only two companies—Petron and Shell—are actively competing with each other as Chevron has started selling its gas stations.

“We met with the trade minister of Thailand and we presented our proposal…. We are inviting PTT, a major petroleum company of Thailand to play a more active role in the retail market of petroleum in the Philippines,” Almendras said.

Almendras said Asean host Indonesia is considering the Philippine government’s Pantawid Pasada program as it supposedly prepares for the scenario of running out of available funds for its $10 billion a year fuel subsidy for the public at large.

The subsidy, however, has resulted in lower fuel prices in Indonesia than in the Philippines.

“They’re actually looking at our Pantawid Pasada system,” Almendras said.

Almendras indicated that the Indonesians are considering a shift to targeting specific sectors as beneficiaries of the fuel subsidy.

In the Philippines’ case, it’s the public transport sector, specifically public utility jeeps and tricycles.