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Shell to Expand Petrol Station Chain

Posted on: Monday, 13 February 2006, 21:00 CST

By KANG SIEW LI

OIL company Shell Malaysia Trading Sdn Bhd plans to add 20 filling stations to its network this year, bringing the total to 850 petrol stations.

Shell Malaysia Trading and Shell Timur Sdn Bhd managing director Mohzani Abdul Wahab said the company has allocated a RM440 million budget for 2005 and 2006.

"Of this total, RM120 million has been spent on the implementation of the EMV (Europay-MasterCard-Visa) chip-based payment card system last year. The remaining RM320 million will be used to add 20 new petrol stations and upgrade the existing petrol stations by December," he told reporters after receiving John and Helen Taylor in Subang yesterday.

The couple are embarking on a trip around the world, fuelled by a new Shell petrol formulation. They plan to cover 28,970km, across 25 countries, in 70 days.

An additional RM25 million has also been set aside for Shell Malaysia Trading's marketing activities this year.

Mohzani said the company plans to open new petrol stations in the Klang Valley, Penang, Johor Baru and areas along the North-South Expressway such as Tapah, Seremban and Bangi.

However, it has no plans as yet to introduce natural gas vehicle (NGV) facilities at its petrol stations.

"We are open to the idea of supplying NGV, provided it is economical. Now the investments are too high," he said, estimating that the NGV facilities will result in a petrol station operator incurring an additional RM1.5 million to the average RM8 million- RM10 million in investments of a new petrol station.

Meanwhile, Mohzani said Shell Malaysia Trading is keen on bringing Shell's newest petrol formulation to Malaysian shores, once the Shell Research and Technology Centre in Chester, the UK, endorses and rolls it out worldwide.

He believes the new Shell petrol formulation will help the company defend its dominant market share of 36 per cent in the Malaysian retail petrol market as competition from Petroliam Nasional Bhd and ExxonMobil intensifies.

"We are watching the progress of this new formulation and we expect it to fill Malaysian fuel tanks in the near future," he said.

"(Nevertheless,) Malaysia has always been a country that gets priority from the Shell Group like when we launched the Shell 'Better Mileage' petrol in 2003. That's because we are one of the biggest retail petrol markets in Asia for the Shell Group," he added.

Last year, Shell Malaysia Trading sold some five billion litres of petrol and diesel.

Source: Business Times; Kuala Lumpur

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