(The Philippine Star) | Updated February 1, 2018 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines —
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will be advising the Philippine National Oil
Co. (PNOC) on the liquefied natural gas (LNG) hub project in Batangas which is
planned to be carried out with private sector participation this year.
ADB announced that a
transaction advisory services agreement was signed between Takeo Koike,
officer-in-charge of ADB’s Office of Public-Private Partnership (OPPP), and
Reuben Lista, president and CEO of PNOC.
Under the agreement,
OPPP will advise and assist PNOC in all aspects of the project including the
award and execution of the final project project agreements.
The project, which
would cost up to $2 billion, will consist of a regasification terminal,
storage, power plant and other related infrastructure.
Due to the imminent
depletion of domestic gas reserves at the Malampaya gas field in Palawan, which
provides a substantial amount of power supply in the country, PNOC is
developing sustainable gas supply strategy through the establishment of
an LNG hub in Batangas.
ADB said the project is
in line with its “increasing focus on environmentally sustainable
infrastructure and private sector participation.”
“The Philippines’ first LNG hub will help in ensuring
long-term energy security to the Philippines and source a cleaner energy
resource,” said Siddhartha Shah, principal PPP specialist.
“It will also increase
energy access and create new demand in the power, transportation, and
industrial sectors in Luzon and in neighboring islands,” he added.
State-run PNOC has
received several unsolicited proposals for the project, some of which are from
three foreign firms: Korea Electric Power Corp., Lloyds Energy Group and China
National Offshore Oil Co.
PNOC said bidding out
the project is also an option if none of the unsolicited proposals meet
government requirements.
No comments:
Post a Comment