Philippines in multi-country talks for LNG hub development

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines has received “great interest” from China, Japan, Indonesia, Korea and Russia for the co-development of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) hub in the country, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said Wednesday.

He said government-to-government (G2G) proposals from the five countries would be evaluated soon.

“They have shown great interest but it doesn’t mean we have shortlisted. We are going to meet the Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) board and management to submit all of these proposals so we can evaluate them,” Cusi said.

PNOC was tasked to develop an integrated LNG receiving and distributing facility with a reserve initial power plant capacity of 200 megawatts (MW).

However, the DOE is not closing its doors on a possible partnership with the private sector given the magnitude of the project, Cusi said.

“It depends on what role they will have, what capacity they are going to play because this is a project that’s a bit complex. You need technical, trading, management. So it all depends on who can give the best solution,” he said.

Earlier, PNOC president Reuben Lista said the state-run firm has received 27 offers from different countries such as Singapore, Korea, China, Japan, Turkey, UAE, Spain and Australia.

Once government finalizes the partner for the LNG project, Cusi said groundbreaking could start as early as 2018.

“Once we choose a partner, we expect groundbreaking in early 2018. But there are a number of variables to consider. But what we want is to complete it within the term of President Duterte,” he said.

When completed, the Philippines will not only secure continuity of power supply but also meet its goal of becoming Southeast Asia’s LNG hub.

“There are two major items we want to achieve with this project, one for energy security as a substitute to the Malampaya gas when it is depleted,” Cusi said.

“The Philippines is geographically ideally located in our region so we can complement with Japan’s requirement and Singapore’s activities in the LNG sector.”

The Malampaya gas field is expected to be depleted by 2024. Currently, around 3,200 MW of power plant capacity is dependent on the country’s sole natural gas source.