Manila oil firm seeks UAE bitumen

Filipino-owned Unioil Petroleum Philippines plans to import bitumen products from the UAE, and is now exploring the Gulf market due to the shortage of asphalt in the Philippines.
Unioil technical services engineer Jose Rafal said he is talking with Dubai-based Kalantar International to import up to 500 metric tonnes of bitumen from Dubai and, hopefully, from other parts of the Gulf.
Kalantar International Chairman Ibrahim Kalantar is scheduled to meet Unioil officials in Manila next month.
"We want to see the cost of importing bitumen from Dubai. At the moment we are importing most of our requirements from Singapore which we already find saturated for the bitumen market," Rafal said.
"Unlike Singapore, the UAE has its own oil exploration activities, so we can also import some petroleum materials. There is not enough supply in the Philippines because of the increase in construction. The three oil giants — Caltex, Petron and Shell - cannot accommodate our requirements, so we are looking at the prospects of meeting the demand from offshore."
Unioil has been in the distribution of specialty oils, fuels and lubricants for 30 years. Its diversified interests include operating retail gas service stations, marketing and blending lubricants; oil trading and terminalling.
It storage and handling facilities are located in Lucanin, Bataan with a total capacity of one million barrels. Expansion will raise the tank farm to 22 storage tanks with an estimated capacity of 1.5 million barrels to accommodate expanding product lines.
For the bitumen requirements, Unioil is importing from Singapore, China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan though most of its products are imported from Singapore with the cost swinging at more than $5 per metric tonne.
From Singapore, Unioil is importing one million barrels of jet fuel, 15 million litres of diesel fuel and 20 million liters of bunker oil per month.