MANILA, March 13 (PNA) — Fuel requirements of Southern Mindanao is expected to get a boost with the opening of the largest oil storage facility in region on Saturday.
Seaoil Philippines Inc. chief operations officer Stephen Yu, in a statement said, their depot in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur has a 41-million liter capacity and can receive medium-range vessels of up to 50,000 deadweight tonnage (DWT) as well as domestic-sized tankers for local distribution and sales.
The company spent P500 million to put up the depot, which is the 11th for the company to date.
Total capacity of all the company’s depots and terminals is about 160 million liters.
Yu said the Davao del Sur facility can serve requirements of about 200 stations, will employ about 2,000 people directly and more than these indirectly, and serve other commercial industries in nearby provinces.
“As the terminal shall import directly in large quantities, it shall be able to reduce if not eliminate domestic marine freight costs providing for a fundamentally lower cost structure,” he said.
Relatively, the company expects to increase its current 340 stations nationwide to 500 next year.
Seaoil is now upgrading its stations and this, along with the introduction of STP-infused fuels, is targeted to increase the company’s market share from four percent to 10 percent by 2016.
The company is set to construct a super station along the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) while bulk of the 120 new stations it plans to put up will be in Mindanao, 40, to be followed by 30 each in the Visayas and the National Capital Region (NCR) and 20 in Luzon. (PNA)