PSE Circular for Brokers No. 639-00

March 13, 2000 PSE CIRCULAR FOR BROKERS NO. 639-00 PETRON CORPORATION March 11, 2000 Acceding once again to President Estrada's request to temper price increases, Petron today announced an increase in fuel prices that is significantly less than the company's accumulated under-recoveries. The price increase, which takes effect tomorrow, is an average of P0.80 per liter on service station fuels and P0.56 per liter on LPG, or cooking gas. Petron recently disclosed that it lost P500 million in the first two months of the year due to its inability to recover crude cost increases. The Company has also demonstrated that local fuel prices are selling at approximately P2.00 per liter lower than the cost of product importation ex-Singapore. Petron is closely watching the very erratic crude price movements in the world market and is hoping that prices will soften later in the month. Earlier this week, Dubai crude reached a nine-year high of $28.41 per barrel. With the price at this level, the oil companies' under-recoveries would be well above P2.00 per liter. The average Dubai price for March so far is $26.54, roughly $2.00 higher than February. llcd Here are the details of the increases per product: XCS Plus P0.80 per liter Premium Low Lead 0.80 Premium Unleaded 0.80 Regular Gasoline 0.80 Kerosene 0.80 Diesel 0.80 LPG 0.56