New gas plant generates enough for 500 families

By Elias O. Baquero
Saturday, March 3, 2012


THE Libertad Natural Gas Power Plant in Bogo City, which is capable of producing one megawatt of power every day, was inaugurated yesterday by Forum Exploration Inc. and Desco Inc.


Bogo City Mayor Celestino Martinez Jr. welcomed the development, saying it will contribute to Cebu’s power supply without causing pollution.


“I believe we have enough natural gas deposits in Bogo and I hope that power generation of this kind of energy source will increase,” Martinez said.


Bogo City Planning and Development Coordinator Carlo Logarta said the Libertad plant is the first small-scale power plant using natural gas in Cebu. Forum extracts the natural gas, while Desco owns the machine that converts the gas into power, which is now being supplied to the Cebu Electric Cooperative (Cebeco) 2.


Forum vice president Dan Carlos said his company has already spent US$11 million for their natural gas drilling operations in Cebu, which started in 1994 under Contract No. 40.


Carlos said that they are generating 240,000 cubic feet of natural gas per day, equivalent to about one megawatt (mw) of power.


One mw can serve 500 households per day.


“We are monitoring the performance of the gas wells and the engine and if supply increases, we may perhaps put up additional engines for additional power,” Carlos said.


He added that yesterday’s inauguration of the Libertad gas power plant was historic, because it’s the first in Cebu and only the third in the country.


The first was in San Antonio, Isabela under the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) and the second facility was from the Malampaya field in Palawan.


San Antonio produces natural gas only, like Libertad, while Malampaya produces both natural gas and oil.


Desco president Sherwin Mendiola thanked Forum for giving his company a chance to prove the efficiency of their Jenbacher gas engines to produce power out of natural gas.


Engineer Redemptor Pascual of the Department of Energy (DOE) urged all local government units (LGU) to support government’s efforts to develop renewable energy, like natural gas.


Cebeco 2 General Manager Peter Señeres said that Desco offered to sell power to them at P5.50 per kilowatt hour, but because this is still subject to the approval of the Energy Regulatory Commission, they are buying it at P4 per kilowatt hour at present, based on their contract price with the National Power Corp.


Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on March 03, 2012.