Total targets to reach 200 stations by 2012

Total (Philippines) Corp. plans to expand its service station network to 200 by next year, as the oil firm celebrates its 15th year of operations in the country.

According to Total Philippines president and managing director Ernst Wanten, the company should be able to open 20 stations this year—the most that the oil firm had opened in any given year.

“At the moment, we are accelerating just to get to a critical mass of stations. Although the main focus is still in Luzon, we still want to spread out more so that we’re less vulnerable to price wars in a certain region,” Wanten told reporters in a recent interview.

Since 2009, when the oil firm’s expansion plans started to materialize, it has opened more stations in the Visayas, particularly in Cebu.

Total currently has three stations in Cebu and plans to put up around 20 more in the next two to three years.

So far this year, he said Total had opened 12 service stations, placing the company ahead of its expansion schedule.

Each station costs around P30 million to build.

The company’s nationwide expansion, however, excludes Mindanao, mainly due to security concerns, Wanten said.

“Mindanao is always an area (to be considered), but there’s always an issue of security. Especially in our company, we’re very prudent about it. So for me, we can only go there when we’re absolutely sure that we will not put any of our employees in any danger—which makes it really difficult,” he said.

Wanten did say that Mindanao, particularly the large demand centers, could be an important area for future expansion.

For this year and next, he said Total’s expansion in the country would focus mainly on its service station network, as its $80-million depot and related infrastructure were still enough for the oil firm’s current requirements.