OFW Filipino Heroes

Monday, September 26, 2011

Royal Dutch Shell Plc toplist the Philippines as Investment priority

Royal Dutch Shell- Shell Philippines Exploration BV is interested to invest another $1 billion to increase the production of the Malampaya deepwater gas-to-power project off Palawan and announced earlier that it would pursue its Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Project in the Philippines. Shell Philippines vice president for communication Roberto S. Kanapi said there are opportunities for investment and expansion, unlike in the past when the Philippines was placed on low priority.


OIL AND GAS: The fifth largest company in the World - Royal Dutch Shell Plc has placed the Philippines in its investment map as it sees growth opportunities in the country.
The Royal Dutch Shell plc commonly known as Shell is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world (and the second-largest energy company) according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six oil and gas "Super Majors". It is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading. It also has major renewable energy activities, including in biofuels, hydrogen, solar and wind power.
Shell has operations in over 90 countries including the Philippines and produces around 3.1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day and has 44,000 service stations worldwide
On a press conference in the Philippines, Shell V-President for communication Roberto S. Kanapi told reporters that there were opportunities for investment and expansion in the Philippines, unlike in the past when the Philippines were placed on its low priority.
“Increasing demands, opening of several areas for oil and gas exploration and strengthen competition makes the industry exciting as the Philippines untapped resources opens its gate for early birds. Shell did not show any details yet but putting the Philippines for their high priority of investments might say there are lots of things to happen soon... There are plans for Shell in the Philippines as saw that the Philippines is an attractive market and a growing market at that. And I think the change in governance also helped a lot,” Kanapi explained.
“As for the cases we are facing, we will go to courts with that and that is part of doing business in the Philippines, but we are prepared for that. We are looking more into the opportunities than the threats,” he added.
The Shell Companies in the Philippines is now in the process of completing a study that will determine the next steps for its refinery in Tabangao, Batangas—as to whether it will be expanded or upgraded to cater to the increasing local demand.
Kanapi said that they expected to complete the study next year in 2012. The decision to list Shell on the local bourse would also largely hinge on the results of the study, he added.
Royal Dutch Shell, through its upstream unit Shell Philippines Exploration BV, is likewise showing interest  to invest another $1 billion to increase the production and extend the life of the Malampaya deepwater gas-to-power project off Palawan.
SPEX, along with other consortium members Chevron and PNOC Exploration Corporation, plans to invest about $250 million for the second phase of the Malampaya project, which will entail the drilling and development of two additional wells. This is expected to be completed by February 2014. Another $750 million will be invested for the third phase, which will involve the installation of a new platform where additional equipment and facilities will be housed by December 2015.
“The projects, entailing new investments, are seen to further benefit the Philippines in energy self-sufficiency and government revenues and will continue to be a major source of power for Luzon’s energy requirements in the years to come,” SPEX said.
Meanwhile, Royal Dutch Plc has also expressed interest in participating in the liquefied natural gas program of the government.
Edgar Chua, country chairman for Shell Companies in the Philippines, had said that the company was interested in becoming a supplier of LNG as well as in putting up the necessary infrastructure, including the “regasification” facility and pipelines which required huge investments.
Mr. Chua did not indicate if Shell would be interested in bidding for the proposed 100 kilometer Batangas-Manila natural gas pipeline that will require as much as $1.3 Billion Dollars in investment of which $500 million will go to the construction of the pipeline while another $700 million to $800 million will be needed for the “regasification” facility and the receiving LNG terminal.
Chua only noted that Shell would likely look for other potential local partners for its planned foray into the Philippine LNG industry.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc announced earlier that it would pursue its Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) Project in the Philippines.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Hikot - Pinoy Social Network in its full blown like Facebook


Pinoy’s Social - Hikot aims to be better than Facebook

After the launching of the Philippines’ pride social network last February 14, 2011, it suddenly lost in space as their upgrade takes so long that deletes all existing accounts but recently their site, Http://www.hikot.com shows it full blown and perfect network; with a big congratulations aura in their recent upgrade.

We have tried to contact the administration of the Hikot if this is their full and final blown but until now, they did didn’t comment back. The recent look of the hikot is closely the same with Facebook but it shows more sophistication and dynamic feature which could not be found in Facebook. With this recent version of Hikot, it seems that they are trying to compete with Facebook’s global market shares of users.

The concept of hikot.com is not just a social network but also a market place where you could sell your products, post jobs, seek jobs, with interesting forum which you could like and would appear in your feed and a very sophisticated site which links to Facebook and twitter. They also a very dynamic site which you could post tourist spots, places, company, product or even promote yourself to find a better career.

The sociability of the Filipinos will never fade and it is a Filipino culture. Before the existence of social network site like Friendster and Facebook or even Hikot; Filipinos are already sociable reasons why the Philippines become the TEXT or SMS Capital of the World which is now added another title as the Philippines is the Social Network Capital of the World. Filipinos are willing to spend times just to be connected with their love ones from anywhere in the world. For more than 9 Million Filipinos living abroad which keep connected to their family and relatives in the Philippines; Social Network like Hikot or Facebook is really needed. From the old system of postal mail, to MIRC in 1990’s YM & (Yahoo Messenger) to SMS / TEXT and Email in 2000’ now it is Social Network Generation.

Though Hikot is still new in the Social Network industry, they are trying to do their best to gain percentage of users from around Asia as they commented on their launching last February 14, a heart’s day in 2011.

Hikot shows features which even better than Facebook. Compare to Facebook, Hikot features the following which could not be found in Facebook:

1.      Forum (A free forum which open to discuss anything under the sun which linked to the user’s feed and activity)

2.      Marketplace (A free classified feature which users could post jobs, seek jobs, sell products services which would appear in their activity and feeds)

3.      Blog (A Specialized feature by Hikot which could not be found in Facebook)

4.      Polls and Quizzes

Facebook and Hikot similarities;

1.      Notification bubble.  Facebook and Hikot share the same features. This will bubble up to notify user for an incoming message,  add friend request, and other online activity and feeds which notify the user while online.

2.      Live Chat Feature. Hikot and Facebook have the same features f Live chat

3.      Photo viewing, tagging and liking features. Hikot and facebook share the same concept but Hikot expanded its feature by liking it to the Twitter and Facebook. Once you will like in hikot’s photo it will appear in Facebook if you Hikot nad Facebook accounts are interconnected. 

4.      Commenting feeds. Like Facebook, Hikot offer the same features

5.      Other features are almost in common except for the features which exist in Hikot and not in Facebook.

LEARN FOREX TRADING AND GET RICH

Investment Recommendation: Bitcoin Investments

Live trading with Bitcoin through ETORO Trading platform would allow you to grow your $100 to $1,000 Dollars or more in just a day. Just learn how to trade and enjoy the windfall of profits. Take note, Bitcoin is more expensive than Gold now.


Where to buy Bitcoins?

For Philippine customers: You could buy Bitcoin Online at Coins.ph
For outside the Philippines customers  may buy Bitcoins online at Coinbase.com