DOE Rebidding 10 Coal Concessions

Manila Bulletin

By MYRNA M. VELASCO

April 20, 2012, 7:25pm

The Department of Energy (DOE) will rebid the 10 coal concession areas which have not attracted offers during the Philippine Energy Contracting Round 4 (PECR-4) last March.

“We will have to schedule a rebid¬ding. But we will have to do it after awarding the contracts for the areas which have gotten overwhelming interests from investors,” Energy Undersecretary Jay Layug has noted.

From the bid submissions last March 30, the energy department will need 150 days to evaluate the offers before making the awards to winning parties.

In Luzon, two areas will have to be included in the next round of auction. These will cover Area 2 in Calauag, Tagkawayan and Guinayangan in Quezon province; and Area 5 in Bacon, Prieto Diaz and Sorsogon in Sorsogon province.

Most of the ‘‘mineable areas’’ for coal are in Mindanao. In fact, of all the areas set for rebidding, eight are in that region.

The other contract blocks which will have their round two for auction will include Areas 14, 16, 20, 21, 24-A, 24-B, 25-A and 28.

Area 14 will cover Magsaysay in Misamis Oriental and Carmen in Agu¬san del Norte; while Area 16 will be in Sibagat and Bayugan, Agusan del Sur province.

Areas 20 and 21 are those in Trento, Agusan del Sur; and Mabunturan, Compostela Valley, respectively. For Area 24, the coverage is Lake Sebu in South Cotabato, while Area 25 is in Maitum and Kiamba, Sarangani prov¬ince. Area 28, on the other hand, covers Kabansalan and Diplahan, Zamboanga Sibugay. Of the 30 coal blocks opened by the energy department for tenders, 20 areas have cornered interests with some getting up to eight offers.

There have been areas though that just cornered one bid each, and these will be included in the evaluation process of the DOE if a rebidding will also have to be undertaken.

As culled from the evaluation criteria set out by the department, the submitted bids will have to be weighed based on the proposed work programs, financial, technical as well as legal qual¬ifications. The DOE has been targeting P2.4 billion worth of investments that will be coughed up for the exploration activities alone.  article source