In a statement the DOE said, “The proposed plan is based on the model of the major retailers Caltex, Petron and Shell, which jointly operated the Pandacan oil depot in Manila. We think joint storage facilities are more effective in the long term as they can avoid duplication of investments and eliminate additional costs.”

“The independents would also be able to build storage facilities on a larger scale if they pooled together their resources,” added the DOE.

Currently, independent retailers in the archipelago usually set up their own private but small depots. The largest depot is Total’s 9 million litres Manila facility, which is being upgraded to handle 18 million litres by 2006.