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The plan of First Gen Corp. to put up another
natural-gas fired power plant may finally push through before the
year ends, the Lopez-controlled firm announced on the sidelines of
its annual stockholders’ meeting.
Richard Tantoco, First Gen chief
operating officer, said the consortium running the Malampaya field
has opened talks with the Department of Energy “to secure an
agreement . . . to move ahead” with the proposed 550-megawatt San
Gabriel plant “probably within the year or towards the tail end of
this year.”
However, Tantoco said the
consortium has yet to specify the gas supply to be allocated for the
proposed facility. The San Gabriel plant, which is estimated to cost
around $450 million, is expected to help avert a looming power
supply deficiency in the country in the near term.
Based on DOE’s Supplemental
Power Development Plan (PDP) 2006-2014 released in the last quarter
of 2007, the Philippine power supply is deemed critical for the
Luzon grid in 2010, the Visayas grid in 2011 and the Mindanao grid
in 2009 unless new generating capacities are put up.
But because the Malampaya is
under a petroleum service contract licensed by the government,
Tantoco said the consortium would have to thresh out with the DOE
first on how it would allocate the field’s gas supply before they
can proceed with the project.
The soaring price of crude in the
world market has led to calls for the government to utilize the
Malampaya to jumpstart its much-delayed ‘natural gas for
vehicles’ program.
The Malampaya is the country’s
largest natural gas field to date, fueling three power plants in the
country, two of which are controlled by First Gen, the
1,000-megawatt Sta. Rita and 500-megawatt San Lorenzo plants.
The natural-gas field is operated
by the consortium of Shell Philippines Exploration B.V., Chevron
Malampaya Llc., and state-owned Philippine National Oil
Co.-Exploration Corp.
--Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo
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