By MYLA IGLESIAS

JG Summit Petrochemical Corp. president Lance Gokongwei yesterday said the company is offering P6.55 per share for the 3.75 billion shares the Philippine National Oil Co. owns in Petron.

Gokongwei said the company is not bidding for the stake of Saudi Aramco in Petron. Ashmore Group offered $550 million for the Aramco stake.

At current prices, the Ashmore deal values Petron at about P6.22 per share, against the P5.60 it was trading at yesterday.

JG Summit offer at P6.55 is 33 centavos higher than the Ashmore bid.

In effect, JG Summit is buying PNOC's stake at P24.56 billion, P1.22 billion more than the Ashmore offer of P23.56 billion at P42.45 per US dollar.

Gokongwei clarified it is not interested in the Saudi stake but the government stake which Finance secretary Margarito Teves earlier said will sell by the second semester of the year.

Gokongwei made the offer in a letter to Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes, copy furnished PNOC president Antonio Cailao.

Earlier Reyes told reporters the Gokongwei family and JP Morgan are interested in buying the 40 percent stake owned by Saudi Aramco.

The Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC), which also owns a 40 percent stake in the refiner, has right of first refusal.

Officials said PNOC can also assign its option to a third party. Its board is to meet today, Thursday, with the Department of Finance and Department of Energy to decide a course of action.

Reyes said the offers had been referred to PNOC's financial advisers, ING Bank and state-owned Development Bank of the Philippines.

The Gokongweis control Cebu Pacific and JG Summit Petrochemical Corp, a joint venture with Marubeni Corp., and first integrated polyethylene and polypropylene plant in the Philippines.

Petron's own petrochemical business is expected to take off this year.

It hopes to increase gasoline production and extraction of propylene, a petrochemical used for food packaging materials and impact-resistant plastics, with the opening of a new facility at its 180,000 barrel per day refinery.

Reyes said the PNOC board has until May 12 to decide whether it will exercise its right of first refusal or identify an eligible third party to exercise that right.

Petron supplies fuel oil, diesel, and LPG to various industrial customers and jet fuel at key airports to international and domestic carriers.