Leading oil industry player is not leaving its competitive advantage to chance, hence, prompting it to go notches further in the roll out of the second phase of its expansion program which commands fresh round of roughly P1 billion investments.

The oil firm just recently unveiled its five-year retail network expansion program, requiring it to pump in investments of P1 billion annually until the completion of its planned additional 1,000 new stations.

Given bizarre developments in the industry, Petron might just end up the only last-man standing in the oil refining business. This will then reinforce its stance at pursuing exponential growth in its retail portfolio.

The oil firm, in a press statement, affirmed that it already completed the first phase of its expansion program, bringing in additional 200 smaller stations into its retail portfolio. These entailed gasoline station additions of 84 in Luzon; 48 in Visayas and 68 in Mindanao.

“From January 2009 to January 2010, Petron has opened 200 new service stations across the country bringing its total service station count to 1,463,” the company said.

Petron chairman Ramon S. Ang noted that they intend to move along with their expansion program, “in line with our strategic initiative to strengthen the company’s core business and ensure our market dominance over the long-term.”