Pilipinas Shell net income drops by 39%

Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. saw its net income for the nine months to September fall 39 percent year-on-year to P4.4 billion due to low margins prevailing in the region that affected its refinery in Batangas.

The company reported a net income of P7.2 billion in the same period of 2018 but for this year, Pilipinas Shell said the number was already 86 percent of its full-year earnings last year.

For the third quarter, net income dropped by 63 percent to P640.7 million from P1.8 billion, but the company was unfazed.

“We are very pleased with Pilipinas Shell’s business delivery for the third quarter in the face of industry challenges and depressed regional refining margins,” company president and chief executive Cesar Romero said in a statement.

He attributed the “strong delivery” to a 4-percent increase — by 160 million liters — in retail and commercial sales volume.

Retail sales inched up 1 percent year-on-year, but Pilipinas Shell noted that this was better than the one-percent contraction in the domestic industry.

So far this year, Pilipinas Shell has opened 30 new stations in key areas across the country, bringing up its total to 1,105 retail sites.

Also, Pilipinas Shell’s bitumen business led commercial accounts with a 50-percent growth in sales volume, thanks in part to having the country’s only bitumen production facility.

To ramp up process efficiencies and other optimization initiatives of its Tabangao refinery, Pilipinas Shell is building the country’s first integrated hydrogen manufacturing facility, which is expected to enable the processing of more crude oil varieties.