Sharla Jay Samaniego Trinidad

BS Chemistry III

Legazpi Oil Company Inc.

Legazpi Oil was established on the year 1954 and located at Brgy. Arimbay, Legazpi
City. Its original owner was Mr. Frank Jerome and was bought by Ayala Corporation /
Mitsubishi Corporation on May 1974 to Febuary 1979. It was headed by the CIIF-OMG from
1979 up to present. This plant produces mainly on Crude coconut oil (export and domestic),
Cake meal (Export and Domestic), Fully refined oil (RBDO) (Domestic) and Minola products
using Coconut meat. Legazpi Oil is certified by HALAL, Kosher and ISPS.
This industrial plant has its own processing facilities like Oil milling plant/Full-press
Extraction and its support facilities like Copra Warehouse, 2-Cake Warehouse, 4-Crude
coconut storage tanks, 2-Edible Oil storage tanks , Copra unloading facility . They also have
their loading facilities including the Quality Assurance/Quality Control Laboratory.
Last January 22, 2016, the class of Industrial Chemistry headed by Prof. Noemi Madrid
visited this industrial plant as a requirement on their subject. This plant visit gave the students
insight of what and how oil is produced and transported to their respected home. This also
showed the actual process on how to produce oil starting from its raw material ; the copra up to
its finished product; the crude oil. As chemistry students and future chemists, this plant visit
helped them in dealing with their future jobs and career. This made them understand the role of
oil production to the nations need.
The plant visit started by explaining to us by Engr. Navarro the process of how oil is
produced. He showed to us the flow chart from the starting point which is by gathering the raw
material. The process has four stages; the crushing, cracking, flaking and filtering. The copra is
analyzed also in the laboratory by its moisture and aquatoxin content. It should be cube size
and its free fatty acid level is also tested. In the drying section, the copra is steamed and
pressed for about 85-90C. Other product produce here is the residual oil and the copra meal.
After the pressing and filtering, the copra cake is stored in the bodega pellet for about 40C
maintained to avoid being carbonized. This will become processed to become oil and
transported to Batangas for refining to become Minola products.
All wastes are recovered and reprocessed to avoid spoilage of materials being used. In
times of scarcity, Pili shells are used instead of Copra meat. The average production per day is
250 tons and they function 24 hours per week. The average oil extracted for a one kilogram
copra is 61.5%.
The plant visit ended by touring us to their processing facilities where we saw all the
machines and apparatus they use in making oil. They also let us roam around their laboratory

where we can work in the future. The analyst there taught us how to use their automatic
apparatus and their laboratory equipments.