Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla assured that the government will resolve the Malampaya deal between Prime Infrastructure Capital Inc. and Shell Philippines Exploration B.V. within the year.
Lotilla said “PNOC [Exploration Corp.] is considering the matter of giving its consent to the sale of Shell’s interest to Prime Infrastructure of businessman Enrique Razon.”
Lotilla said PNOC EC, which has a 10-percent stake in Service Contract 38 or the Malampaya project in northwest Palawan, “will give consent first.”
“The PNOC Exploration Corp. is considering the matter of giving its consent to the sale of Shell’s interest, and as far as the Department of Energy is concerned, we would have to review the sale and the terms and conditions under which it is going to be made,” he said.
“The schedules are quite tight and those schedules, even if stretched a bit, I don’t think that they would have to go beyond this year,” Lotilla said during a briefing.
Prime Exploration Pte. Ltd., a subsidiary of Prime Infra, signed a share purchase agreement in July to acquire MEXP Holding Pte. Ltd., a subsidiary of Udenna Corp. MEXP Holdings owns Malampaya Energy.
Lotilla said the DOE would soon announce the technical and financial advisors that would help the agency review the technical and financial aspects of the proposed sale.
“But I can assure you that we will try to adhere to the timelines that are in the department circular that I issued in 2007 on the renewal and approval of transfers and interest in the service contract. I realize that the deadlines there are tight, but as much as possible, we would like to address these issues within the framework of that department circular,” he said.
He said DOE would exercise the utmost care and diligence in reviewing the sale.
“The main objective is to ensure that the Philippine government and the Filipino people will be able to take full advantage of this resource and that within the framework of Presidential Decree 87, we look forward not only to the extraction of the existing resource but that we also look to the full development of the other oil and gas resources of the country,” he said.
SPEX operates the Malampaya gas field, a critical power asset that delivers 20 percent of the country’s electricity requirements, through SC 38 granted to the consortium of SPEX, Chevron Malampaya (now UC Malampaya) and PNOC EC.