The Energy Department obtained commitments from Japanese companies to invest in the country’s energy sector, including liquefied natural gas.
Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi told reporters the Philippines generated the pledges, including a liquefied natural gas facility from Osaka Gas, during the recent visit of President Rodrigo Duterte to Japan.
Cusi said possible investments included waste-to-energy plants and copper wire manufacturing.
“There were talks on waste to energy and the company, I think was JFE. There’s also LNG and Osaka Gas (that) expressed interest,” the energy official said.
“We talked also of the possibility of putting up copper wire manufacturing in the Philippines but the problem is we need efficient and stable electricity supply,” Cusi said.
He said the government wanted to entice other manufacturers to set up investments in the Philippines.
“They said there are two major issues, which is logistics—moving goods and power supply cost. That one, I really want to be able to do it because that is employment for the Philippines,” he said.
Cusi said the department would work with other agencies to bring the copper wire manufacturing investment to the Philippines.
Osaka Gas has long expressed interest to team up with Manila Electric Co.’s power generation unit, Meralco PowerGen Corp., for the construction of a 1,500-megawatt liquefied natural gas integrated facility in Luzon.
Yoshihiko Kimata, chairman, representative in Southeast Asia of Osaka Gas Singapore Pte. earlier said company and Meralco PowerGen “are communicating periodically.”
Kimata said the joint feasibility study for the planned project was in progress.
“At this moment we are more interested with the Meralco project. We have limited resources so we cannot look many projects at the same time,” he said.
Meralco PowerGen officials earlier said the 1,500-MW LNG facility is estimated to cost $2 billion.
Osaka Gas is a key player in Japan’s LNG market and imports about 7.9 million tons per year, representing 9 percent of Japan’s total LNG imports, mostly from the Middle East (Qatar and Oman), Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei), Australia and Russia.
The Japanese company has stakes in six LNG carriers. Osaka Gas also operates two world-class LNG receiving terminals, including the Himeji and the Senboku terminal.Power distributor Manila Electric Co. is still keen on investing in a liquefied natural gas infrastructure but not in the near term, an official said over the weekend.