A fire hit the Philippine Coastal Storage and Pipeline Corp.’s loading rack at its facilities in Subic Bay, Zambales, which supplies fuel to other oil players.
PCSPC’s terminalling and storage services for fuels has a capacity of 5.2 million barrels at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
Energy Assistant Secretary Leonido Pulido III said the fire occurred at the centralized gantry of the facility. Loading rack no. 2 was damaged, he said.
However, Pulido said that based on the assessment of the department’s Oil Industry Management Bureau, the fire had no effect on fuel supply.
“The terminal manager will later send official report,” Pulido said.
The present lessors or locators of PCSPC includes PTT, Microdragon, Subic Petroleum Trading and Transport Philippines, ED&F, Bioenergy, Seaoil, Novalco, Bunge, Raizen, Marubeni, Defense Logistics Agency, Rockoil and Phoenix Petroleum.
The fire was declared out at 1:20 p.m. on Monday.
Last year, PCPSC successfully completed the construction of 540,000 barrels of additional storage capacity and loading facilities at its operations within the freeport zone.
Three new 180,000-barrel fuel storage tanks and two tank truck loading racks, were built over 12 months.
The new tanks increased PCSPC’s total fuel storage to 5.2 million barrels (827 million liters) of various fuel products such as diesel, gasoline, jet and fuel oil.
PCSPC’s strategic location in the SBFZ provides for efficient importation of fuel products for storage and onward distribution along the network of well-maintained toll roads to Clark, Manila, Central and Northern Luzon.
SBFZ also provides an efficient coastal location for hub operations with imports from regional refineries for onward export distribution to the region.
PCSPC operates the petroleum storage and pipeline facilities of the former Subic Bay Naval Base. The facility was originally constructed in 1953 with 2.4 million barrels of capacity, but its capacity has doubled over the past six years.