Dominant player Petron Corporation has already advanced its bid to take the lead in promoting ethanol as alternative fuel for motor vehicles.

The oil company has reaffirmed such commitment when Energy Secretary Vincent S. Perez personally relayed to President Arroyo that it has taken upon itself to be in the forefront of promoting the use of ethanol as either a blend to gasoline, a component of reformulated gasoline, or a primary fuel with gasoline as blend.

"Petron already offered to take the lead in promotion of ethanol," the energy chief told the President.

Ethanol is an alternative energy resource produced from crops such as corn, grain sorghum, wheat, sugar and other agricultural feedstocks.

During the Pulong Bayan at the Pandacan depot, the President first proposed to Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation to promote the use of ethanol in the oil sector; but the energy secretary divulged that Petron has already made an advance offer.

In this vein, President Arroyo instead sought the help of Pilipinas Shell in expanding the market of natural gas as another alternative fuel for the transport sector.

In tandem with affiliate Shell Philippines Exploration B.V., the oil firm has gone ahead in setting up a mother-daughter technology to enable the use of natural gas for motor vehicles.

The Shell gas refilling stations will also be offering products which would be lower than the cost of imported oil-based pump products.

Malacañang sent this week a high-level delegation to Thailand, headed by Perez, to meet with PTT (Petroleum Authority of Thailand) and seriously look into the possibility of developing ethanol as alternative fuel for its transport sector.

Thailand's model has been considered; noting that this country has already positioned successfully the use of ethanol as blend on its gasoline, at least within the 5.0-percent to 10-percent volume.

The continued promotion of alternative and more environmentally-friendly fuels has been becoming a battle cry for most stakeholders, primarily players in the oil industry.

In fact, Petron officials stressed that part of their commitment would be to bump up the use of fuels which would both protect consumers and the environment.

The oil company has already offered government that it will help in undertaking initial studies to determine the standards for the use of ethanol as well as the viability of its implementation.

For this year, Petron bared plans of gearing up for further business expansion and upgrading of facilities as it allotted this year R1.8 billion capital expenditures (capex) to fund specific projects.