Positive news for EWC (commentsbyRino E. Abad, director of the DoE’sOil Industry Management Bureau see highlighted paragraphs 1,5, 6 and 13 below).
https://www.bworldonline.com/energy-world-philippines-gets-go-signal-to-build-lng-facility/
Energy World Philippines gets go signal to build LNGfacility
January 4, 2019 | 12:08 am
By Victor V. Saulon
Sub-editor
THE local unit of Australia’s Energy World Corp. Ltd. (EWC)has taken the lead in the race to build an integrated liquefied natural gas(LNG) facility in the Philippines as its proposal has been cleared by theDepartment of Energy (DoE).
In a letter dated Jan. 2 to theAustralian Securities Exchange, EWC said DoE Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi onbehalf of the department had issued Energy World Gas Operations Philippines,Inc. a permit to construct, own and operate an LNG import terminal andregasification facility on Pagbilao Grande island in Quezon province.
“The permit which was issued on 21December 2018 forms an update to the original permit documentation and providesfor a further construction period of 24 months from the permit issue date,” itsaid.
EWC said the permit would enable thecompletion date for the first tank of the LNG hub to be aligned to thecommercial operation date of the associated 650-megawatt (MW) power plant andthe National Grid Corporation of the Philippines switchyard expansion, which isunder construction, and for the construction of the second tank.
Separately, Rino E. Abad, director of the DoE’s Oil IndustryManagement Bureau, told reporters on Thursday that EWC is now leading as far aspermitting is concerned.
Mr. Abad said EWC’s proposal was the first to be endorsed bythe centralized review and evaluation committee (CREC) for Mr. Cusi’s approval.He said the proposal was simply an extension of EWC’s previously approvedproject that had encountered delays because of funding issues.
The proposal of Phoenix PetroleumPhilippines, Inc. and its Chinese partner China National Offshore Oil Corp.(CNOOC) is currently being evaluated by CREC, he said.
First Gen Corp. and its partnerTokyo Gas Co., Ltd. were the last to submit its project proposal, which is nowunder evaluation by Mr. Abad’s group for compliance with financial, technicaland legal requirements.
Mr. Abad said the issue with EWC’sprevious application was mainly on the extension of the project’s previouslyissued permit.
“The problem is nag-submit siyang work program pero hindi niya ma-explain ‘yung budget (Theproblem was it submitted a work program but it was not able to explain itsbudget.),” he said.
Mr. Abad said the TWG (technicalworking group) had asked EWC to substantiate its application since at thattime, the unfinished project needed around P6 billion to be completed. He saidthe company had replied with supporting documents, including approval fromshareholders that they would release a special fund for the project’scompletion.
“Ang sa amin naman as long ashindi masyadong vague ‘yung plano ‘yan naman ay ine-encourage natin,sinusuportahan ‘yung investors (From our end, as long as the plan is nottoo vague, we encourage it and support the investors.),” Mr. Abad said.
He also said that EWC also explained that therelease of funds by local lenders depends on the approval by the DoE of theextension permit.
In an earlier interview, EWCDirector Graham S. Elliott said the company had resumed talks with locallenders to fund the completion of its 650-MW combined cycle gas-fired powerplant.
“We are in the process of finalizingthe project funding from the Development Bank of the Philippines and Land Bank[of the Philippines] and other institutions, and hopefully we’re about six toeight months away from commercial operation of the first 200-MW gas turbine,”Mr. Elliott had said.
Francis Nicolas M. Chua, DBP firstvice-president and head of the bank’s corporate finance group, confirmed therevival of talks with EWC.
