At least 12 foreign and four local firms have expressed interest in developing infrastructure for the storage and transportation of liquefied natural gas, official said.
Energy Undersecretary Jose Layug said the companies planning to build an LNG infrastructure terminal, pipeline, or gas-fired power plants include the following:
· First Pacific Capital (Australia)
· ENN Energy Holdings (China)
· Synergy International (Hong Kong)
· Korean Western Power (Korea)
· BW Ventures (Nationality unspecified)
· Hyundai Merchant Marine (Korea);
· Energy World (Australia)
· PNOC (PHILIPPINES)
· GN Power (PHILIPPINES)
· First Gen Corp. (PHILIPPINES)
· Abacus Consolidated Resources/ENI-Saipem (Italy)
Layug said three Indian companies have also expressed interest in building an LNG facility in the Philippines.
Government is now completing its master plan for natural gas through technical assistance by the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the World Bank, It should be finished this year, the undersecretary noted.
“After we complete [the] plan and results are favorable, then we conduct public bidding [for] such infrastructures next year," Layug added.
Earlier, Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras said the agency wants the program to kick off — soon — considering the number of major LNG developers interested in investing in the Philippines’ LNG industry.
Last week, the Asian Development Bank told Asian nations to “to take radical steps" to increase efficiency and invest in renewable energy amid a “looming" crisis.
The Philippines said Wednesday it would grant more permits to private firms to search for oil and natural gas in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), where it has a simmering territorial dispute with China.
A total of 15 exploration contracts would be offered Thursday for mostly offshore prospects off the western island of Palawan, the Department of Energy (DoE) said in a statement.
The DoE did not give details beyond saying the blocks would include East Palawan—an undersea section of the West Philippine Sea—as well as Northwest Palawan and the Sulu Sea basins.
“The contracting round is expected to attract investments in oil and gas exploration activities which will contribute to the realization of the country’s energy self-sufficiency level target of 60 percent,” it said.
“Independent and large-scale international exploration companies… have already expressed their interest to tender their bid in the various blocks,” it added.
The scheduled tenders come amid increasingly assertive insistence by China on its territorial claims over most of the West Philippine Sea.
President Benigno Aquino this month called for US help in containing China’s ambitions in the area, saying his country was too weak to stand up to Beijing alone.
The plea was issued after his government accused China of inciting at least seven recent incidents in the disputed waters, including one in which a Chinese vessel allegedly opened fire on Filipino fishermen.
The Philippines has also alleged that a Chinese patrol ship shadowed a Philippine oil exploration vessel in the area.
China and the Philippines have overlapping claims over the Spratly archipelago, a reputedly resources-rich South China Sea chain, as well as over nearby shoals, reefs and banks and their adjacent waters.
The Spratlys are also claimed in whole or in part by Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam.
