(Malaya Business Insight) -- Petron Corp.(Philippines), the country's largest oil refiner and retailer, yesterday said income for the first three months almost doubled from the same period last year due to stronger revenue from its petrochemical business. Petron said its first-quarter income stood at P3.4 billion, up 88.88 percent from P1.9 billion.
The company said export sales rose about 60 percent to 1.38 million barrels in the first quarter compared with only 867,000 barrels in the same period last year.
Petrochemical export volumes increased 32 percent to 774,000 barrels.
Petron said the spike in crude prices pushed up the prices of petrochemical products such benzene, toluene, and xylene, while supply tightness in propylene enabled the company to capture incremental margins from its production streams.