Motorists are in for a techie treat as SEAOIL raffles off over 500 prizes in the “SEAOIL- National Basketball Training Center (NBTC) All-Star Gadget Giveaway”. The promo runs in all SEAOIL stations nationwide until September 7, 2011.

For every 300 PHP worth of purchase of SEAOIL fuels and lubricants, customers are entitled to one raffle coupon. SEAOIL VIP Club members and customers who will purchase premium gasoline and lubricants such as EXTREME 97, G5 X-treme, MAKO Synthetic Oil, GEO Supreme, and DEO Max will get additional raffle coupons.

Over 500 winners will be announced at the preliminary draw on August 5, 2011 and Grand Draw on September 21, 2011. Hi-tech prizes include iPad2 and Samsung tablets, iPod Touch devices, Acer laptops, and Sony digital cameras. The “Mythical 5” will be picked during the Grand Draw and each winner will get a Honda XRM motorcycle. Among the five, an “MVP” will be drawn and receive an additional prize of 5,000 PHP worth of SEAOIL gift cards and a one-year supply of SEAOIL 4T Power.

The NBTC is the Philippines’ only grassroots training program aimed at developing the Filipino youth through basketball and is accredited by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP). Since it was founded in 2007, the NBTC has produced players that represented the country’s National Youth Team in the last three years. The program conducts tournaments and clinics in over 21 cities.

SEAOIL is the first independent fuel company to put up a gasoline retail station in 1997, following the deregulation of the country’s downstream oil industry. It has since aggressively expanded its retail network and has become the country’s largest independent fuel firm establishing over 180 gasoline stations in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

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Seaoil Philippines Inc. has entered into a $30-million supply contract for the sale and distribution of the low emission Euro-5 diesel product, making it the first oil firm in the country to comply with the highest European emission standards.

Seaoil president and chief executive Francis Glenn Yu said they have forged an agreement with SK Networks, a major South Korean trading house, for the supply of Euro-5 diesel over the next six months.

At present, diesel being sold in the Philippines is only at Euro-2 standard.SK Networks, a member of SK Corp., one of the biggest South Korean global conglomerates, is a leading player in the global trading of oil, gas, coal, steel and chemical products.

Yu explained that the European emission standards consist of sets of requirements defining the acceptable limits for exhaust emissions of new vehicles sold in the European Union member states.

These standards specify the progressive introduction of increasingly stringent fuel regulations requiring a minimum of 10 parts per million sulfur content and diesel cetane number (CN) of 51.

Reduced sulfur is a key enabler in realizing reduced tail pipe emissions while CN is a measure of the combustion quality of diesel fuel during compression ignition or the fuel’s ignition delay. Thus, the higher the CN, the shorter the ignition delay period.

Generally, diesel engines run well with a CN from 40 to 55. Hence, higher speed diesels operate more effectively with higher CN fuels.

Yu said Euro-5 diesel would further boost Seaoil’s product line that already boasts of several pioneering efforts.

“The company started the use of biofuels and other alternative fuels in the country with the introduction of the use of ethanol as a gasoline blend,” he added.

In 2005, it made the first ethanol-blended gasoline, or E10, available to the public, two years ahead of the implementation of the Biofuels Act.

The law states that all fuel products must be two-percent blended with biofuels within the year, increasing to a 10-percent mix by 2011.

Seaoil currently offers a 10-percent blend of ethanol in all its gasoline products as well as a one-percent blend in all its diesel products.

By Ted P. Torres, Philippine Star

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Oil’s Big Three – which sell nine in every 10 liters of fuel in the country – have been urged to follow the lead of Sea Oil Philippines Inc. in selling price-lock prepaid cards to consumers.

Opposition senator Francis Escudero issued the dare to Petron, Pilipinas Shell and Chevron Philippines, which operates the Caltex brand, a week after Seaoil launched the industry-first prepaid card which locks the price of gas for a given time.

Escudero said if a “small player in a small country ” can offer a product that shields consumers from price spikes ” then there’s no reason why this can’t be done by energy giants whose mother companies have been recording super profits”.

“If a scrawny new kid on the block can make the generous offer then oil companies with bigger financial muscle can do no less, “Escudero said.

To be sold between June 10 to 21, Seaoil’s prepaid fuel card can buy 20 liters of gasoline (G5 X-treme and Unleaded) from any of the oil firm’s stations.

At a “locked” price of P53.50 per liter, each card costs P1, 070 and is valid for 11 weeks or from June 10 to Aug. 22.

In the less likely event of a price rollback during the period however, company officials said they will refund the difference.

“This is the beauty of the Seaoil promo. The card price is fire walled against global price increases but if global prices go down Seaoil will give out refunds. For the motorists, there is no win-win offer than that,” Escudero said.

Seaoil has 102 stations all over the country, a drop in the barrel compared to Petron’s 1,200; Shell’s 800; and Caltex’s 850. The three combine for 2,850 out of the 3,369 registered fuel filling stations in January 2006.

In calling for the replication of the Seaoil promo, Escudero particularly directed his appeal to Petron, which remains 40 percent owned by the government until the sale of the latter’s stake to a British holding company becomes final.

“This is one form of imitation that Petron must have no qualms in doing because it serves the public interest and also makes good business sense, “he said.

He said Shell and Chevron “can also initiate a variant” of the Seaoil prepaid card “and they cannot plead poverty in not doing it.”

“Pilipinas Shell is part of a global conglomerate which posted a 25-percent hike in profits in the first 90 days of the year , or $9 billion while local Caltex’s mother company , Chevron, reported a 10 percent hike in profits, or $5.2 billion for the same period, ” he said.

Philippine Senate Press Release

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