Published July 19,
2020, 3:00 PM by Myrna M. Velasco
State-run Philippine
National Oil Company-Exploration Corporation (PNOC-EC) is targeting to escalate
its coal exploration and production ventures as it accelerates planned
installation of a 50-megawatt mine-mouth power plant in Isabela province.
According to
PNOC-EC President and CEO Rozzano D. Briguez, the propounded mine-mouth power
generating facility will be utilizing proven reserves of 20 million metric
tons, and he deems it “a pioneering undertaking utilizing low rank indigenous
coal.”
The proposed power
plant was previously cast in the firm’s investment targets, but implementation
failed to gain traction for some time. A mine-mouth power plant is built close
to the coal mine – and the coal fuel it will be using would be excavated
straight from a dig site, placed on a conveyor belt and fed directly into the
power facility.
PNOC-EC indicated
that while it has been contributing to the country’s coal requirements through
the years, it will still need to step up on production – taking off from the
1.3 million metric tons and 757,000 MT outputs it generated from two of its
producing coal operating contracts (COCs).
Onward, Briguez noted
that “PNOC-EC will prioritize projects with higher projected revenues; and
thus, we are focusing on the development and production of mines in COC 41
(Zamboanga Sibugay coal mine project); and the development of coal mine-mouth
power plant project in COC 122 in Isabela.”
Further, the
government-run firm will continue with exploration projects at its coal
operating contracts 185 and 186 in Zamboanga Sibugay in Mindanao; and “will
pursue exploration in new COCs through the DOE’s (Department of Energy)
contracting program.”
“Taking advantage of
the high quality of coal in Zamboanga-Sibugay, PNOC-EC is looking into production
from two underground mines by 2025,” the PNOC-EC chief executive said.
He emphasized the
state-run firm’s “underground coal mine operations will remain as the largest
of its kind in the country.”
Part of the company’s
investment game plan is to also “assess the potential of coal bed methane,”
which is an unconventional form of natural gas found in coal deposits or coal
seams.
In pursuing the array
of projects currently in their investment blueprints, Briguez conveyed that
“PNOC-EC will adapt to more intensive approach;” including data-viewing options
that can be cloud-based for all of its operations, while in parallel enforcing
warranted safety protocols “to ensure safeguard of life and property.”
He opined that
companies “which can adapt immediately to changes in the business ecosystem
survives.”
For roughly two
decades, PNOC-EC advanced multiple coal exploration ventures, but Briguez
qualified they had to relinquish at least four of their concessions “either due
to peace and order problems, social acceptability and low prospectivity.”
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