Government to tap China for Agus rehabilitation, Japan for LNG hub

MANILA, Philippines — The government plans to tap China’s assistance for the P54 billion Agus-Pulangi hydro power plants rehabilitation project.

In a statement, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said the government has decided to include the rehabilitation of the Agus-Pulangi hydro power plants in the second basket of projects to be submitted to China for possible financing assistance.

“For the medium term, we are upgrading or rehabilitating the Agus power plants. And we have sought financing from China to implement the project,” Dominguez said.

Dominguez said the rehabilitation of the five Agus-Pulangi power plants in Mindanao would increase their capabilities and extend their service life by 30 more years.

Dominguez said the government is also in talks with potential Japanese investors to supply LNG receiving stations as part of the integrated LNG facility project.

Under the project, the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) will build a LNG facility to replace the Malampaya natural gas reserves before its run out of reserves by 2024.

“By the mid-20’s, when we are going to run out of the Malampaya reserves, we are ready with our LNG facilities. We are talking to Japanese businesses and the Japanese government to set up LNG receiving stations,” Dominguez said.

According to Dominguez, the rehabilitation of the Agus-Pulangi power plants and the construction of a new LNG facility would ensure stable power supply in the country.

Agus operates at roughly 60 percent of its capacity, while the Malampaya gas field in Palawan supplies up to 50 percent of the energy requirements for Luzon.

Meanwhile, National Power Corp. (Napocor) president Pio Benavidez told Dominguez the first facility to be rehabilitated among the Agus-Pulangi power plants is the Agus 6 as it is the oldest facility with the biggest output. This would be followed by Agus 2 and Agus 7.

Benavidez said the rehabilitation could take four to five years and would involve the replacement of old transformers, as well as old electrical equipment.

After the rehabilitation, total capacity would reach more than 1,000 megawatts, he said.