Published
By Myrna M. Velasco
A foreign company has
reportedly offered to buy for $700 million to $800 million, approximately P35
billion to P40 billion, the remaining 97.67 petajoules (PJ) of Malampaya
‘banked gas’ that is currently under the charge of state-run Philippine
National Oil Company (PNOC).
As noted by PNOC
President Reuben S. Lista, the offer is “highly attractive,” but the company is
still hurdled on the exact timeframe on when the gas can actually be extracted
from the Malampaya field. For the meantime, he kept under wraps the identity of
the prospective buyer.
There had also been
‘purchase proposition’ from a local company, but the price tender of $4.50 per
million British thermal unit (BTU) equivalent is way below the government’s
quoted sale price of $6.616/MMBTU, as referenced on the gas sale cost to the
Ilijan plant.
The ‘banked gas’ had
been primordially contracted for the 1,200-megawatt Ilijan power facility, but
due to ‘dispatch constraint’ at the initial years of its operations, the plant
was not able to fully utilize its fuel allocation for several years.
That led to the ‘banked
gas’ accumulation – that was then subsequently booked as “stored fuel’ in the
financial books of state-run National Power Corporation (NPC), the government
entity that had underwritten the gas sale and purchase agreement (GSPA) for the
Ilijan plant.
Nevertheless, under the
Arroyo administration, a government-to-government transaction was consummated
leading to NPC’s sale of the ‘banked gas’ to PNOC for just half of the asset’s
value – or from R35 billion to P14.4 billion.
Lista said they made
initial divestments of the ‘banked gas’ to Power Sector Assets and Liabilities
Management Corporation (PSALM) for P937,000; and another P2.3 billion worth to
Shell Philippines, hence, the aggregate volume had already been down to 96.67PJ
from 108 petajoules.
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