by Myrna Velasco May
8, 2016
The Department of
Energy (DOE) is now calculatedly weighing its steps whether or not it would
still be prudent to award the “banked gas” contracts given that the tenure of
the Aquino administration will already lapse in roughly 50 days.
When asked by the
media if any contract award may already be considered a “midnight deal,” Energy
Secretary Zenaida Y. Monsada stated that such had been “one of the legal
implications we are studying.”
She noted that the
management of the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) is still negotiating
with some parties, following the failed bidding undertaken on the banked gas.
After finalizing the
negotiations, the propounded contract awards would still need to go through
approval processes at the PNOC Board.
Following such
process, Monsada indicated that they may already run out of time for an
air-tight contract award that would not be vulnerable to questioning by the
next administration.
She previously told
media that only one bid passed the prescribed floor price. All others, Monsada
said, lodged price offers that have been below market prices.
The energy chief
primarily attributed the unsuccessful outcome of the banked gas auction to the
plummeting global gas prices – which in essence, served as guide for most of
the bidders.
The government
packaged a bidding that integrated the additional Malampaya gas volume of Shell
Philippines Exploration B.V. (SPEX) so these can fuel additional 400 megawatts
capacity.
The banked gas in
particular is under PNOC’s charge – having bought it from the National Power
Corporation (NPC) which is the gas purchaser-counterparty in the gas sale and
purchase agreement for the 1,200-megawatt Ilijan gas-fired power facility.
The gas volume
accrued at the time when the dispatch of the Ilijan plant was reined in –
during the initial phase of its commercial operations – due to constraint in
power transmission lines then.
The banked gas of
PNOC out of the Ilijan plant could feed a greenfield power plant of 200-megawat
capacity.
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