Thursday, June 19, 2008 Petron to offer prepaid gasoline cards
PETRON Corporation, the country's largest oil refiner, is also studying the possibility of offering prepaid gasoline cards to help customers cushion the impact of high fuel prices in the world market.
Kamal Al-Yhaya, president of Petron, said they are willing to look at the use of prepaid gasoline cards if this will help ease the burden on the consumers.
"What we'd like to do in our pricing is to make sure that it is the optimum for the consumer. So anything that can help in that, we'll look at it," Al-Yhaya said.
However, he stressed that Petron's operation is larger compared to other oil players, thus offering prepaid gasoline cards would need to be thoroughly studied first.
"Our operation is much larger than small operators that are starting to do prepaid," he said.
In terms of volume, Al-Yhaya said: "Our volumes are much bigger especially in gasoline than small competitors. And in doing this scheme, we'll have to study very well to make sure that customers are well protected and the price we offer is the optimum."
Last week, Seaoil Philippines ventured into prepaid gasoline cards. At least 10,000 cards were made available in its selected stations.
The prepaid cards amounting to P1,000 has a guaranteed 20 liters of gasoline for a retail price of P53.50 per liter.
According to Al-Yhaya, they are also exploring other possible alternatives in lowering the prices of their petroleum products.
However, he admitted that, "it (fuel price increases in the international market) is not something that we can stop."
On Monday, Petron launched its E10 premium products, which is cheaper by P2 per liter than the current prices of gasoline in the domestic market.
E10 product will be sold initially in Petron's 14 retail stations in Metro Manila. (MSN/Sunnex)
