Amid moves to sort out its debt profile, Uy-led Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc. sprang back to profitability with P121.3 million net income logged in the first quarter this year, and that effectively wiped out the P386.3 million loss posted in the same period last year.
The company said sales volume had been on sharp 43-percent rise, and that was mainly driven by the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) segment of the business; as well as the recovery of its commercial and other business-to-business (B2B) ventures, coupled with sustained strength of overseas business trading.
As the third largest player in the country’s downstream oil sector, Phoenix Petroleum emphasized that despite industry contraction, it was still able to jack up its market share last year to 7.1-percent as against a leaner 6.9-percent fraction it had in the pie in 2019.

When it comes to overseas operations, Phoenix Petroleum indicated that volumes from subsidiaries in offshore markets “more than doubled during the period.”
The company stated “the overseas business, led by the trading subsidiary in Singapore, remained robust in the first quarter,” although it emphasized that its LPG operations in Vietnam had eased “following consecutive triple digit growth in the prior quarters.”
In the domestic market, the company said it is inclined to further expand its LPG market – and it will be leveraging on the 15-percent increase on its year-on-year volumes nationwide.
The biggest volume hike on its LPG cylinders had been for the juicy Luzon market with 53-percent growth; while Visayas and Mindanao markets posted 11-percent volume rise.
“Cylinders accounted for almost two-thirds of the business in the first quarter,” the Uy-led company cited, although it qualified that “sales to lower margin LPG segments were pulled back” and that resulted in overall decline in LPG volumes.
Onward, Phoenix Petroleum President and CEO Henry Albert R. Fadullon noted that despite the re-enforcement of movement restrictions, the company’s April results, “exceeded pre-Covid levels for the first time.”
He specified that while recent developments for the company had been encouraging, “we remain cautious and thus committed to our priorities of providing the best offer to our customers, operational excellence and accelerating growth.”
The company added that domestic volume for oil commodities now hover at 93-percent vis-à-vis pre-pandemic state; and that was on the back of anemic start this year because of the recurrence of rising Covid-19 infection rates.
Hence, given the lingering challenges in the business, Phoenix Petroleum noted that it “continues to deliver on its operational and capital commitment to simplify its operations, free up resources and improve efficiency."