PNOC EC sells oil to Bangladesh, Indonesia

MANILA, Philippines–PNOC Exploration Corp. (PNOC EC) kept oil trade volumes with Bangladesh and Indonesia steady from last year, a top official told Inquirer.

In an interview, PNOC EC president and CEO Pedro A. Aquino Jr. said volumes delivered to Bangladesh via state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corp. (BPC) reached 382,751 metric tons (MT) as of December 2014. The total volume consisted of gas oil, motor gasoline or mogas, and high-speed fuel oil or HSFO.

In 2013, PNOC EC also sold 382,751.93 MT to Bangladesh, consisting of gas oil, mogas, and HSFO.

Sales to Indonesia in 2014 reached 146,533.7 MT of mogas and gas oil. This is slightly higher than the previous year’s trade of 146,533.227 MT, also consisting of mogas and gas oil.

“We have a partner, Glencore, which is an international trading company. BPC can deal only with government agencies under the terms of the financing it gets from the ADB (Asian Development Bank) so it has to deal with another state firm like us. So we link the two,” Aquino said.

In 2012, PNOC-EC expanded its international oil trading business to include Sri Lanka and Indonesia aside from Bangladesh in partnership with Astra Oil Company and Glencore Singapore Pte., Ltd.

While essentially an upstream company, PNOC EC ventured into the downstream business as early as 1996.

The company is also into coal marketing and trading and is considering reviving its government-to-government arrangements with other state-owned companies to get preferential rates for coal products.

Earlier, BPC announced that it had closed deals with the Philippine firm, among other sources, for its requirements.

A statutory organization of the Bangladesh government under the Energy & Mineral Resources Division of the Ministry of Power, Energy & Mineral Resources, BPC supervises, co-ordinates, and controls all activities relating to import, store, marketing, distribution of petroleum products in its country. BPC also develops infrastructure facilities related to the energy industry.

“The oil sector is considered to be the most sensitive sector of the economy and macro-economic indicators are greatly influenced by the supply and price movement of petroleum products. By considering its sensitivity to the economy, government has taken the oil sector under its absolute control by establishing this organization,” BPC chair Secretary Md Eunusur Rahman said in a statement posted on the company website.

BPC started operating in 1977.