Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. plans to put up 40 to 60 stations this year as part of its expansion program, an executive said over the weekend.
The retail expansion is included the company’s P3-billion to P4-billion capital expenditure rollout for 2022.
“We continue to invest. We will be building 40 to 60 mobility stations this year. We are building more company-owned sites and a bigger footprint to ensure that we have the complete offer. We are not just a fuel station, but we are a mobility destination to offer various items beyond fuels,” PSPC vice president for mobility Randolph del Valle said.
PSPC is the country’s second-largest oil company with over 1,100 retail stations nationwide.
PSPC is also building at least 70 non-fuel retail outlets, Shell Select and Helix Oil change facilities and car wash stations.
“There are really various offers that are relevant these days. After pandemic, there are services our customers really need. We want to make sure we expedite this based on our learning,” he said.
Rey Abilo, PSPC vice president for finance, said the company would maintain its P3-billion to P4-billion capex program annually.
“Sixty percent of this will be dedicated on the expansion of mobility footprint, while the other 40 percent will be dedicated to further strengthening our supply chain network,” Abilo said.
“We are pretty confident that for the year, we will be able to actually spend that capex, because we are seeing recovery in demand and we continue to invest in the country to make sure the PSPC will remain competitive in the market,” he said.
PSPC built 43 new mobility stations nationwide, 26 of which were the bigger company-owned sites located in key cities/higher foot traffic areas, below the company’s target of 60 openings in 2021.
“This is our highest CO station opening in the last decade. Based on our financial evaluation, the returns on building slightly less number but bigger stations with full mobility offer and more strategic locations, makes better economic prospects for us in the longer-term, compared to the original plan.” PSPC president Lorelie Quimbiao- Osial said
The company launched its first “Site of the Future” in Cavite last year―a modern, customer-centric and sustainability-focused station used as a model in the Shell Group globally.
She said PSPC also continued with the shift to lower-carbon operations in its assets such as putting up solar panel fixtures for its retail sites, use of ecobricks and BitumenFreshAir (lesser harmful air particulates emitted) as building materials for stations, converting to LED lights and inverters in-store and utilizing green walls and rainwater recycling systems.
“In our supply chain assets, our Villanueva depot [for our bitumen products] followed suit with our Tabangao import terminal in installing solar panels as a part-substitute in our operations’ energy sources, shifting to more renewable sources,” Quimbao-Osial said.