Wednesday, December 20, 2017

PNOC board explores ‘banked gas’ price delinking on divestment plan



Published December 18, 2017, 10:00 PM By Myrna M. Velasco

For it to have options on its divestment plan, the board of the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) will explore legal means on how they can de-link the company’s ‘banked gas’ pricing to that of Ilian gas cost.
PNOC President Reuben S. Lista said their company management will lodge a formal proposal to the Board to come up with a sale plan of the “banked gas’ on a price not necessarily pegged to that of Ilijan’s prevailing price.
The PNOC chief executive emphasized that if they will encounter difficulty ‘equitizing the banked gas’ as integrated package on their prospective partnerships in liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects, then they will take the recourse of selling the banked gas separately.
But since the pricing is a major concern for many interested buyers, they would want the Board to address that in particular.
“We requested the Secretary (Alfonso G. Cusi) that it should be our way forward because we have been trying to sell the banked gas since 2009. We were not able to sell because we have our hands tied on a previous Board Resolution pegging its price to that of Ilijan gas,” Lista stressed.
He added that if they cannot successfully lump the ‘banked gas’ as equity in their LNG ventures, the PNOC Board “will at least have a justification now to negotiate with any interested party who are willing to buy it – even if we sell it at a lower price.”
At Ilijan-linked price, he noted that the cost range for the banked gas could be at US$6.169 to more than US$7.00 per gigajoule, but the latest purchase offer lodged to them verbally had just been at US$4.15-US$4.35/GJ.
First Gen of the Lopez group was a preliminary interested party to buy the banked gas, but he said negotiations were never firmed up because they have not submitted any written offer or proposal to the PNOC Board.
“Their offer was somehow good even if they want to buy the banked gas cheaper because their aim is to lower the cost of electricity. However, they (First Gen) had not given us written proposal, so we were not able to take it up at the Board,” Lista conveyed.
Aside from First Gen, he noted that two other companies have shown interests in PNOC’s banked gas and they have been batting for ‘forward booking arrangement’ as these investors have yet to advance their power plant projects into construction phases.
Lista indicated that the alternative ‘banked gas sale plan’ is a matter they will be taking up with the Board once they have a clear sense already that it could not be turned into equity with their prospective LNG co-venturers.

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