August 19, 2019 | 12:32 am
SULU SEA Energy
Resources Development Corp., a new entrant in the energy and petroleum
exploration sectors, may well be the first local company to come forward under
the present administration with plans to put up a nuclear power station.
The power station is
being considered in the Tawi-Tawi and Sulu area, its top official said, as the
company looks at expanding the area’s power sources to include solar and
possibly, oil and gas.
“We believe that
nuclear power offers a great opportunity for diversifying into non-fossil fuel
based, non-carbon emitting power source that is able to supply the base load
power needed for developing areas,” said Benjamin G. Loong II, Sulu Sea
president, in an e-mail to further explain his views after an interview on
Friday.
He said energy source
diversification would help, especially for the island provinces isolated from
the mainland grid.
“We are quite
interested in the prospect of possibly being able to partner with a foreign
company in order to bring this power generation technology into the country,”
he said.
Mr. Loong said the
company’s nuclear ambition remains a prospect for now as nothing substantial
has materialized with the search for a foreign partner, apart from a few
“courtesy meetings” with visiting foreign experts and company representatives
in the past two years.
He said the prospect of
the project largely depends on the decision of the government after the
submission by the Department of Energy (DoE) and the Philippine Nuclear
Research Institute of their position paper to the Office of the President
through the Nuclear Energy Program Implementing Organization, the group tasked
to come up with the country’s nuclear policy.
Mr. Loong said he was
also awaiting enactment of a law forming a nuclear regulatory body.
“We are hopeful that
there will be a favorable decision soon,” he said.
The DoE has hired the
Social Weather Stations to conduct a “perception” survey on nuclear energy in
the Philippines.
“[It’s] anything
related [to] nuclear,” DoE Undersecretary Donato D. Marcos told reporters on
Friday last week, even as he declined to give details because of a
non-disclosure agreement.
Mr. Marcos said results
of the survey will be presented to the Cabinet, which will decide whether to go
ahead with development of nuclear energy.
In the meantime, Sulu
Sea Energy — a company established by entrepreneurs based in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi
who aim to develop indigenous energy sources — is placing its capital on a
couple of areas in the Philippines for oil and gas exploration.
On Friday, the
company’s bid for an exploration service contract covering an area within the
Sulu Sea Basin was opened by the DoE.
No one came forward to
challenge its unsolicited proposal.
Mr Loong said Sulu Sea
Energy, whose founders and stockholders are the owners of local mining
companies based in Tawi-Tawi, is also awaiting results of its unsolicited
proposal to work in a separate exploration area. — Victor V. Saulon
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