Ang still open to gov’t-owned Petron

Ramon Ang —CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS

Tycoon Ramon Ang is ready to drop Petron Corp. from his business empire as he again offered to sell the oil giant back to the Philippine government amid the fuel crisis triggered by the Middle East war.

“If the government wants to buy Petron from me and if they think they can operate it better, then so be it,” Ang, who leads Petron as president and CEO, told reporters on Friday.

Petron, which is under conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC), is the largest oil player in the Philippines.

As the country’s only oil refiner, Petron supplies about 40 percent of the total fuel requirements nationwide through its refinery in Bataan. The facility can process 180,000 barrels of oil per day.

The government previously had a hold of Petron through the Philippine National Oil Co., Inc. (PNOC). The state-run agency took over Esso Philippines—Petron’s old name—during a global oil crisis in 1973.

In 1994, PNOC agreed to a deal that allowed Saudi oil titan Aramco to secure a 40-percent stake in Petron.

In 2008, Aramco unloaded its stake to London-based investment fund manager Ashmore Group for $550 million.

Ang’s SMC then took the reins of Petron following an option agreement with the Ashmore Group.

SMC has been running Petron since 2009.

According to Ang, he first floated this proposal to Congress in 2021.

“If the government believes that Petron under its ownership will better serve the Filipino people, especially in times like these, we are ready to sit down and make it happen,” he reiterated.

Ang said both parties could pursue the settlement of payment in tranches “at fair market valuation.”

“We have never treated Petron as simply a profit center. We lost over P11 billion in 2020,” he said in a separate statement.