Published December 18, 2017, 10:00
PM By Myrna
M. Velasco
For it to have options on its
divestment plan, the board of the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) will
explore legal means on how they can de-link the company’s ‘banked gas’ pricing
to that of Ilian gas cost.
PNOC President Reuben S. Lista said
their company management will lodge a formal proposal to the Board to come up
with a sale plan of the “banked gas’ on a price not necessarily pegged to that
of Ilijan’s prevailing price.
The PNOC chief executive emphasized
that if they will encounter difficulty ‘equitizing the banked gas’ as
integrated package on their prospective partnerships in liquefied natural gas
(LNG) projects, then they will take the recourse of selling the banked gas
separately.
But since the pricing is a major
concern for many interested buyers, they would want the Board to address that
in particular.
“We requested the Secretary (Alfonso
G. Cusi) that it should be our way forward because we have been trying to sell
the banked gas since 2009. We were not able to sell because we have our hands
tied on a previous Board Resolution pegging its price to that of Ilijan gas,”
Lista stressed.
He added that if they cannot
successfully lump the ‘banked gas’ as equity in their LNG ventures, the PNOC
Board “will at least have a justification now to negotiate with any interested
party who are willing to buy it – even if we sell it at a lower price.”
At Ilijan-linked price, he noted
that the cost range for the banked gas could be at US$6.169 to more than
US$7.00 per gigajoule, but the latest purchase offer lodged to them verbally
had just been at US$4.15-US$4.35/GJ.
First Gen of the Lopez group was a
preliminary interested party to buy the banked gas, but he said negotiations
were never firmed up because they have not submitted any written offer or
proposal to the PNOC Board.
“Their offer was somehow good even
if they want to buy the banked gas cheaper because their aim is to lower the
cost of electricity. However, they (First Gen) had not given us written
proposal, so we were not able to take it up at the Board,” Lista conveyed.
Aside from First Gen, he noted that
two other companies have shown interests in PNOC’s banked gas and they have
been batting for ‘forward booking arrangement’ as these investors have yet to
advance their power plant projects into construction phases.
Lista indicated that the alternative
‘banked gas sale plan’ is a matter they will be taking up with the Board once
they have a clear sense already that it could not be turned into equity with
their prospective LNG co-venturers.
No comments:
Post a Comment