By Juzel L. Danganan
MANILA, July 8 (PNA) — Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. (PSPC) is expecting better revenues for the first half this year, compared to the huge losses in 2014.
“We don’t have first half results yet, but so far so good due to the stability in prices,” said PSPC president Ed Chua in a chance interview with reporters.
He explained the crashing oil prices from July to December last year, had resulted in Shell’s losses due to its fuel stock.
Chua added Shell normally build fuel stocks in depots to prepare for the rainy season, to avoid the difficulty in shipping to islands due to typhoons.
Last February, the Shell president revealed he expects last year’s profits to be very bad.
Chua also said the net loss for 2014, might be bigger than 2013’s losses of Php1.2 billion, which was revealed as not record-high.
Last year, the oil market was in turmoil due to the sustained production of shale oil that was cheaper than petroleum-based oil, which eventually forced petroleum producers to also lower prices.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which supplies a huge fraction of the world’s oil, was forced to lower its prices in a bid to defend its market share. (PNA)