Tuesday, January 16, 2018

PNOC discards 2‘unsolicited’ offers on LNG infra projects

Published By Myrna M. Velasco

Two unsolicited proposals for the planned US$2.0-billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure development chain had already been cast off by state-run Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) due to non-conforming submission on the terms set by the government.
PNOC Board Chairman and Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi told reporters that the evaluation team of the state-run company was already assessing the third proposal as of Friday (January 12).
He did not name the proponents of the discarded project tenders, but with the seven submissions, PNOC can now just lean on the ‘appropriateness’ of offers of the other five investor-groups.
“The first two were already opened and they’re not acceptable, so they’re already evaluating the third proposal after discarding the first two,” Cusi said.
On the roll of unsolicited proposals being evaluated are those of: First Gen Corporation, Lloyds Energy Group in partnership with Itochu Corporation, Korea Electric Power Company, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, Indonesian firms PT Jaya Sumadra Karunia as well as PT Perusahaan Gas Negara LNG/PT Bosowa Corporindo and local partner MOF Corporation; and that of the World Energy Corporation.
Nevertheless, it was gathered that the technical working group of PNOC “merely returned and not rejected” the two proposals, “because they did not comply with the requirements.” It was previously reported in media that the returned proposals were those of Kepco and Lloyds Energy, but the latter actually had its re-submission of offer.
Cusi qualified that if all seven offers will fail, the next recourse for the government will be to undertake competitive bidding for the PNOC-led LNG facility build-up plan.
The development prospect being eyed by the government is either to pursue a joint venture (JV) deal or build-operate-transfer (BOT) agreement with the chosen private sector partner.

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