Senators on Tuesday supported the proposal for a government buy-back of Petron Corp. saying the move could finally solve the oil crisis and break the cartelized pricing of oil products among the major oil players.

Senator Francis Pangilinan said the government should buy-back Petron in order to “break the back of the Big 3 cartel,” referring to major oil players Shell Petroleum Corp. and Chevron.

“The government should buyback Petron in order to break the back of the big three cartel, bring pump prices down to its real levels without sacrificing profitability and force the other two big players to bring down their prices in order to compete,” Pangilinan said.

Pangilinan said that in order to ensure transparency, the Department of Energy (DoE) should require big players to maintain a 30-day inventory of oil so that there is full disclosure of its purchase price and complete awareness as to whether or not the raising or lowering of pump prices are justified.

“The DoE is empowered to do this,” he said.

Pangilinan also said that the Congress should finally mull the possibility of returning to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) the power to endorse oil price increases by means of amending the Oil Deregulation Law.

“Finally, we should return to the ERC by way of amending the oil deregulation law the power to approve increases in oil prices month to month depending on the available inventory,” he said.

Ashmore Investment Management Ltd., a London-based group, is now offering to sell back to the government the 40 percent stake in Petron Corp. which was privatized last year amid criticisms, especially from the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), that gasoline and other oil products in the country were overpriced.

Some government officials expressed belief that maintaining the government’s equity presence in Petron can prevent cartel-like pricing by the major players.

Senator Loren Legarda said the move is worth considering.

“While this course of action may run against the privatization policy of the government, it may have been prompted by widespread perception that oil players in the country are engaged in cartelized pricing of fuel products like gasoline, diesel and LPG,” Legarda said.

Legrada said the government must certainly look into this possibility of Petron, as the supplier of a third of the country’s oil-based fuel needs “being put in a position to lower fuel pump prices by way of an honest-to-goodness market competition.’’