Pilipinas Shell bitumen facility on track to start operating in Q1 2018

A planned bitumen production facility at the Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. refinery in Tabangao, Batangas is expected to be operational by the first quarter of 2018, a company official said on Tuesday.

"The project is on time and we expect to start out by first quarter of 2018," PSPC President and CEO Cesar Romero told reporters in a media briefing ahead of the company's first annual stockholders' meeting as a publicly listed company.

"We are investing about $13 million for a facility that will allow us to participate more in the country's infrastructure program," Romero noted.

Bitumen is a residue from refining of crude oil, and is used as a component for making asphalt.

The bitumen business is expected grow with the infrastructure development initiative of the Duterte administration.

"This is very much in line with the government's priority, which is infrastructure," Romero said.

The administration plans to spend at least P8.2 trillion on the golden age of infrastructure during the six-year term of President Rodrigo Duterte, as part of efforts to spur economic growth all over the country.

"In terms of target market, for the moment, we are actually in a good position because we are about 50 percent of the bitumen market in the Philippines already. We aim to continue to increase that," Romero said.

Pilipinas Shell opened a bitumen import, distribution and storage facility in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental in 2003.

The company also opened a Bitumen Solutions Center in 2008, for learning about bituminous products and road pavements. — VDS, GMA News