By Lenie Lectura – July 4, 2018
AT least two firms have formally expressed interest to participate in the public bidding of unused Malampaya natural gas, more known as banked gas.
Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) Executive Assistant Jannefer Pelayo said on Wednesday one foreign firm and one local firm are interested to buy the banked gas comprising of 97.67 petajoules from the state firm.
"As of July 3, there are two companies that have expressed their interest on the banked gas. We confirm that one of the companies is foreign-owned. We note that another company has declared its interest via news publication," Pelayo said.
She did not name the bidders. Earlier, San Miguel Corp. said it was interested to bid for PNOC's banked gas.
The PNOC earlier published a bid invite where interested bidders are given until July 23 to submit their proposals, which should contain price offer in US dollar per gigajoule exclusive of taxes, volume in petajoules, schedule of withdrawal and description of intended use.
The PNOC had said that acceptable offers will be required to submit qualification documents to establish their legal, technical and financial eligibility.
"We expect more bidders in the coming days before the deadline date of July 23, 2018," Pelayo said.
The PNOC said last year that proceeds, amounting to about P11.9 billion, from the sale of the banked gas will be utilized to finance the government's plan to put up a liquefied natural gas (LNG) hub.
The PNOC said it is swamped with offers from foreign and local firms for a partnership in the former's plan to put up an integrated LNG hub with storage, liquefaction, regassification and distribution facility, as well as a reserve initial power-plant capacity of 200 megawatts. This is targeted to be completed in 2020.
"We are still in the process of evaluating the unsolicited proposals with the Asian Development Bank [ADB]. We are strongly hoping to find our partner for the LNG project soon," said Pelayo, adding the intention is to finalize its LNG plan, including its preferred partner, within the year.
The PNOC earlier tapped the services of ADB as consultant for its planned LNG project.
The PNOC received offers from First Gen Corp., Energy World Corp., PT Jaya Samudra Karunia, PT PGN LNG Indonesia/PT Bosowa Corporindo with local partner MOF Corp., Korea Electric Power Corp., Lloyds Energy Group and China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC).
The planned LNG project should be completed before the expected depletion of the Malampaya offshore gas find near Palawan island in 2024.
The Malampaya project currently supplies fuel to five natural gas plants with a total installed capacity of 3,211 megawatts (MW). This amounts to 21.33 percent of the installed capacity of the Luzon grid and almost 15 percent of the country's total installed capacity.
LNG is natural gas converted into a liquid state for easier storage and transportation. Upon reaching its destination, LNG is regassified so it can be distributed through pipelines as natural gas.