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The government is eyeing to complete the development of a strategic
network of gas infrastructure in less than three years time that
would make the supply of relatively cheaper and cleaner natural gas
available for the transport sector in Luzon.
In his keynote speech during the recently held
Compressed Natural Gas-Natural Gas Vehicle (CNG-NGV) Philippines
Forum, Department of Energy (DOE) Undersecretary Mariano Salazar
said that the department has already identified a 420-kilometer
stretch of interconnected legs of high-pressure transmission
pipelines and related facilities to ensure that access to natural
gas is made available starting 2011 to Metro Manila and its
surrounding provinces.
He said that the DOE has already put state-owned
Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) to task in “catalyzing” the
development of the much-needed network of pipeline that would later
on “have access to the Trans-Asean Gas Pipeline.”
“Without this network of infrastructure,
natural gas development will remain in a stalemate,” he said.
The government, through its Natural Gas Vehicle
Program for Public Transport (NGVPPT), is planning to have at least
2,000 buses and 500 jeepneys running on CNG in Metro Manila by 2010.
A pilot project in partnership with Shell has
already started the introduction of 15 CNG-fed buses plying the
Batangas/Laguna and Metro Manila routes.
However, the absence of a gas pipeline that
would make the project commercially viable has kept the NGVPPT from
pushing through past this initial stage.
Salazar said that the main infrastructure
network that will have to be operational for the government’s CNG
program in the transport sector would be the EDSA-Taft Gas
Transmission Pipeline or the ET Loop.
“Hand in hand with the simultaneous
development of 21 CNG refilling stations in strategic locations,
this infrastructure plan would make gas available throughout major
public transport routes in Metro Manila,” he said.
Although the official did not disclose other
details regarding the pipelines, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes
earlier said that the DOE has already initiated talks with Pilipinas
Shell Petroleum Corp. and the Lopez Group on the possibility of
converting an existing oil pipeline co-owned by the companies for
transporting the supply of CNG across Luzon from the Malampaya
field.
The Malampaya, which is run by the consortium of
Shell Philippines Exploration B.V., Chevron Texaco and PNOC-Exploration
Corp., is the country’s largest natural gas producer to date. It
powers three power plants with a capacity of about 2,700 megawatts
and feeds a CNG mother station in Batangas.
The latter facility supplies Shell’s lone CNG
refilling station in the South Luzon Expressway in Biñan, Laguna.
-- Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo
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