Manila Bulletin
By Myrna M. Velasco
Published: May 8, 2013
Offshore investments will move notches ahead for Lopez-run Energy Development Corporation (EDC) next year, with it increasing its capital outlay to $40 million next year from a comparatively lean budget of P100 million this 2013.
In a briefing with reporters at the company’s annual stockholders meeting, EDC president Richard B. Tantoco noted that three wells will be drilled in their Mariposa concession in Chile next year. The capital spending per well will be $9.0 million.
Apart from Chile, the rest of the allotments will be for “geophysical survey activities” in their concession areas in Peru and Indonesia.
The company was just recently awarded its first preliminary survey rights over Grahu Nyabu site in Sumatra, Indonesia. Tantoco indicated that they are eyeing two more sites in that country.
The firm’s battlecry, he said, will be to set on stream at least 500MW in additional geothermal capacity over 10 years – or at least three successes in those overseas developments at 100 to 200MW capacity each.
On the domestic front, the next big-ticket capital spending of the company would be $130 million to $150 million for the expansion of its soon-to-be-constructed 87-megawatt Burgos wind power project in Ilocos Norte. The plan is to jack up the plant’s capacity to 150 megawatts by 2015.
For the first quarter, the Lopez firm logged a flat income growth to P2.698 billion from the year-ago level of P2.699 billion.
According to Tantoco, “the income results for the quarter are generally in line with our expectation for revenues of First Gen Hydro Power Corporation to decline with the increased competition for the ancillary services market and for revenues of GCGI (Green Core Geothermal Inc.) to remain robust and start to pick up with its growing number of non-institutional customers.”
Overall, company officials indicated that they are just eyeing flat growth in revenues this year, referencing it to the P28.4 billion logged in 2012.
They further explained that this will be mainly due to the scheduled extended maintenance shutdown for the Palinpinon plant; expected lower revenue stream from ancillary services via its Pantabangan plant; and its consultant’s prescription to discount revenues from Bacon-Manito operations for the rest of the year.
Had the Bacon-Manito plant been in full commercial operations this year, the publicly-listed firm was supposed to generate P4.0 billion revenues from it. For now though, the expectation will be for it to be on operation just around July this year.
Moving forward, the Lopez firm is targeting to enhance efficiencies and to strategically grow by spinning off its core operations to various strategic business units (SBUs) – around seven of them, with two being dedicated for the Latin American and Indonesian expansions.
EDC chairman Federico R. Lopez considers such to be a component of the early phase of the company’s “multi-year transformation.” (MMV)
He stressed that the SBUs “will enable EDC to concentrate its balance sheet and manpower resources on core activities, like steam resource development and management, as well as power generation.”
Beyond Indonesia and Latin America, Tantoco noted that they are still sustaining their interest for geothermal exploration in Kenya, but exercising such with “much caution”; given the recent change of leadership and the overall business terrain for energy investments in that country. (MMV) source
In a briefing with reporters at the company’s annual stockholders meeting, EDC president Richard B. Tantoco noted that three wells will be drilled in their Mariposa concession in Chile next year. The capital spending per well will be $9.0 million.
Apart from Chile, the rest of the allotments will be for “geophysical survey activities” in their concession areas in Peru and Indonesia.
The company was just recently awarded its first preliminary survey rights over Grahu Nyabu site in Sumatra, Indonesia. Tantoco indicated that they are eyeing two more sites in that country.
The firm’s battlecry, he said, will be to set on stream at least 500MW in additional geothermal capacity over 10 years – or at least three successes in those overseas developments at 100 to 200MW capacity each.
On the domestic front, the next big-ticket capital spending of the company would be $130 million to $150 million for the expansion of its soon-to-be-constructed 87-megawatt Burgos wind power project in Ilocos Norte. The plan is to jack up the plant’s capacity to 150 megawatts by 2015.
For the first quarter, the Lopez firm logged a flat income growth to P2.698 billion from the year-ago level of P2.699 billion.
According to Tantoco, “the income results for the quarter are generally in line with our expectation for revenues of First Gen Hydro Power Corporation to decline with the increased competition for the ancillary services market and for revenues of GCGI (Green Core Geothermal Inc.) to remain robust and start to pick up with its growing number of non-institutional customers.”
Overall, company officials indicated that they are just eyeing flat growth in revenues this year, referencing it to the P28.4 billion logged in 2012.
They further explained that this will be mainly due to the scheduled extended maintenance shutdown for the Palinpinon plant; expected lower revenue stream from ancillary services via its Pantabangan plant; and its consultant’s prescription to discount revenues from Bacon-Manito operations for the rest of the year.
Had the Bacon-Manito plant been in full commercial operations this year, the publicly-listed firm was supposed to generate P4.0 billion revenues from it. For now though, the expectation will be for it to be on operation just around July this year.
Moving forward, the Lopez firm is targeting to enhance efficiencies and to strategically grow by spinning off its core operations to various strategic business units (SBUs) – around seven of them, with two being dedicated for the Latin American and Indonesian expansions.
EDC chairman Federico R. Lopez considers such to be a component of the early phase of the company’s “multi-year transformation.” (MMV)
He stressed that the SBUs “will enable EDC to concentrate its balance sheet and manpower resources on core activities, like steam resource development and management, as well as power generation.”
Beyond Indonesia and Latin America, Tantoco noted that they are still sustaining their interest for geothermal exploration in Kenya, but exercising such with “much caution”; given the recent change of leadership and the overall business terrain for energy investments in that country. (MMV) source
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