RSA pushes gov’t to decide on Petron takeover

Business tycoon Ramon S. Ang has put the spotlight back on its standing offer to sell Petron Corp. to the government, pressing the state to decide whether public ownership of the country’s only oil refinery is necessary as the country grapples with a national energy emergency.

“I first made this offer to Congress in 2021, and it remains open. If the government believes that Petron under its ownership will better serve the Filipino people especially in times like these, we are ready to sit down and make it happen,” Ang, who sits as President and CEO of Petron, said in a chance interview with reporters on Friday.

He said that the government would not need to shoulder a massive one-time payment, as the sale could be structured in tranches at fair market value.

For Ang, Petron has long been treated as a strategic asset within SMC, not merely a profit engine. 

“We have never treated Petron as simply a profit center. We lost over P11 billion in 2020. 

We invested $2 billion to upgrade the Bataan refinery and kept it running even when it would have been easier to just import finished fuel, the way other oil companies chose to do. We did that because the country needs its own refining capacity. That has always been our reason,” Ang said.

Petron’s Bataan refinery—processing 180,000 barrels per day and supplying about a third of the nation’s fuel—has become even more crucial amid the Strait of Hormuz disruption and soaring global oil prices.

Petron ended 2025 with a net income of P15.6 billion, surging 84 percent from P8.5 billion the year before, driven by stronger domestic sales, improved refinery performance in both the Philippines and Malaysia, and lower financing costs resulting from tighter cash management.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange, the company reported selling 113.4 million barrels across its Philippine and Malaysian operations, a 3-percent increase from 110 million barrels in 2024.

Based on government data, Petron raised its market share to 27.8 percent in the first half of 2025 from 25 percent in 2024. It likewise maintained a dominant 25.1-percent share of the LPG sector.