Published September 2, 2018, 10:00 PM By Myrna M.
Velasco
The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has
deployed its team in firming up a deal with Filipino firm Phoenix Petroleum
Philippines, Inc. on the targeted venture of putting up a liquefied natural gas
(LNG) terminal in the country.
The CNOOC team in the Philippines, according to sources,
comprises of three to four executives including Li XinLi, who is the deputy
manager of the Chinese firm’s planning group.
Phoenix Petroleum President and CEO Dennis A. Uy previously
confirmed that they are undertaking a “feasibility study” on prospective LNG
investments and that is being carried out in partnership with CNOOC.
Since that confirmation three months ago, the CNOOC-Phoenix
joint venture reportedly went as far as scouting a site for their planned LNG
terminal – one of which is a former site of a refinery in Batangas.
Phoenix Petroleum has not given specific details yet on the
LNG investment target – such as the magnitude of capital outlay and the
infrastructure components, if it will just entail LNG terminal (either onshore
or the floating storage regasification unit) or it will also inject investments
into gas-fed power plant projects.
The CNOOC-Phoenix investment team is still seen as very much
in the running, despite last week’s announcement of state-run Philippine
National Oil Company (PNOC) that it rejected all “unsolicited proposals” on its
$2-billion LNG venture and had instead shifted its tack into “solicited
proposals” from interested parties.
In that latest move of PNOC, listed firm First Gen
Corporation confirmed that its tender had been discarded by the state-run firm;
although it qualified that its proposal is actually for PNOC “to participate in
First Gen’s onshore storage and regasification terminal to be constructed
within the First Gen Clean Energy Complex in Batangas City.”
For First Gen, it is aligning $1-billion investment for the
LNG terminal which has been targeted for five million tons per annum (mtpa)
capacity.
The Lopez firm added that “plans to develop (the) LNG
terminal remain on track,” while emphasizing that it is now at advanced stages
of negotiation with potential partners.
For PNOC, its LNG project has already been encountering
delays if anchored on the timeframe that the company first set its eyes on last
year.
In searching for a partner, the state-run firm intends for a
joint venture arrangement with prospective “equitization” of its banked gas out
of the Ilijan power project.
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