Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. said it has fully dismantled its oil tanks in Pandacan, Manila to comply the Supreme Court’s ruling directing the transfer of the oil companies’ depot outside the city due to safety concerns.
Pilipinas Shell country chairman Ed Chua told reporters the company had fully complied with the high tribunal’s decision but had yet to decide on what to do with the dismantled area.
Shell, Petron Corp. and Chevron Philippines jointly operate the Pandacan oil depot. All three companies have ceased their oil depot operations.
Shell said it also shut down its automated lube blending oil plant in Pandacan.
“We have to comply with the Supreme Court ruling. We will have to import lubricants,” Chua said earlier.
Shell lubricants account for about 20 percent of the company’s total business in the Philippines, he said.
Shell officials earlier assured that all its 14 oil tanks would be dismantled at the Pandacan depot by November.
“We are disappointed [by the court’s ruling], but this does not define our whole relationship with the government,” Chua said.
Chua said Shell would absorb any price difference arising from the transfer of its depot from Pandacan to Batangas, but downplayed any possible oil price hike arising from it.
“It’s still market forces,” he said.
The Supreme Court required Petron Corp., Chevron Corp. and Shell, or the so-called big 3 oil companies, to remove the oil depot facilities in Pandacan, Manila, and not merely to cease operations by November.
Among the three oil firms, Shell initially resisted the Pandacan oil depot’s removal saying it would raise pump prices and create logistical problems.
“It is very challenging because we’re coming from Batangas,” Chua said.
Shell owns a 110,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Batangas which was recently upgraded to allow the production of Euro 4-compliant fuels.
