PTT Thailand to open integrated petrol stations in Vientiane

PTT plans to launch an integrated petrol station in Vientiane by the middle of this year.

The firm will open the station to replace its existing small oil depot in the Laotian capital. The depot has capacity for 500,000 litres of oil, but the new facility will have two standard 1-million-litre tanks and will sell both petrol and diesel, PTT's senior executive vice president for oil business, Sarun Rungkasiri, said recently.

The creation of the integrated |station and the switch to two tanks are expected to be completed within the middle of this year. PTT will expand its network of petrol stations in Laos to between 40 and 50 sites in three to five years. These developments are expected to cost between Bt300 million and Bt400 million.

Earlier, PTT disclosed that it plans to expand its of petrol-station networks in Laos, Cambodia and the Philippines to between 40 and 50 stations each at a combined cost of around Bt5 billion to Bt6 billion within three to five years.

PTT has given top priority to Laos because the country still has to import oil, creating a major opportunity for Thai distributors.

PTT has a policy to seek local partners in Laos to expand its network. Many local firms have expressed interest, but the firm believes that setting up the integrated station will make it even easier to attract partners.

PTT has a plan to spend between Bt5 billion to Bt6 billion this year on the petrol-station network expansion and on its non-oil business expansion. Of the total budget, over Bt1 billion will be spent on expanding petrol stations in Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines. It plans to set up 5 to 10 large petrol stations and 40 to 50 standard-size stations within three years in each of these countries.

Burma and Indonesia have yet to provide opportunities to PTT to invest in the petrol-station business, while it is difficult to get into this business in Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam.

In Thailand, PTT will focus on upgrading the oil quality and |service at its petrol stations, Sarun said.

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Posted by samakomlao on 8:09 AM. Filed under development, developments, Laos . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Feel free to leave a response