Phil-Mal not bidding for energy assets
Thursday, March 16, 2006
By KAMARUL YUNUS
March 16 2006
PHIL-MAL PetroEnergy Corp (Phil-Mal), a Philippine-Malaysian consortium in which Ranhill Bhd holds a 90 per cent stake, is not bidding for the energy assets belonging to Philippines' National Power Corp (Napocor).
Instead, a Ranhill Bhd official said Phil-Mal will continue to focus on its core business in the oil and gas sector in the Philippines."Phil-Mal is not participating in any bids with regard to the energy assets of the National Power Corp of the Philippines."At this juncture, Phil-Mal's main business line is solely concentrated on oil and gas exploration and production and not power," the official told Business Times.
Earlier news reports from the Philippines said Phil-Mal is one of the 24 investor groups identified by the republic's Power Sector and Liabilities Corp (PSALM) interested to bid for the generation assets of Napocor.PSALM is a government corporation set up under the Energy Industry Reform Act of 2001 to oversee the privatisation of Napocor's power and generation assets.
The Manila Bulletin Online said that the interested investors were called up last week at the Philippines' Department of Energy on presentation of market prospects they could have the commercial operations of the wholesale electricity spot market.According to the report, firmed up in the list of prospective bidders include Phil-Mal; TransAsia Power Corp and US firm Unocal Corp, which was recently acquired by ChevronTexaco.
The interested investors have been eyeing to join the bidding of any of the generation assets, of which PSALM is scheduled to divest within the year; primarily the 600-MW Calaca coal-fired power facility; 100-MW Pantabangan and 12-MW Masiway hydro plants; and the package of the 275-MW Tiwi and 425.73-MW Makiling-Banahaw geothermal complexes.
Phil-Mal is a newly-formed joint venture company between Filipino businessman Eduardo T. Alingarog and Malaysia's WTK Holdings to engage in the Philippines oil and gas exploration business before Ranhill bought over the 90 per cent shares of the block awarded to this consortium.
In January, Ranhill through its subsidiary Ranhill Energy Sdn Bhd bought the 90 per cent interest in a Philippines oil and gas exploration block through a farm-in agreement with Phil-Mal. The block covers an area of 265,000ha and is located partly onshore in Cebu Island and partly offshore in Tenon and Cebu strait of Philippines.Phil-Mal had signed a Service Contract with the Department of Energy of the Government of Philippines in March last year to explore and develop the block for 35 years.
Phil-Mal is investing some US$2.15 million (RM7.97 million) for the seven-year initial exploration period.On the privatisation of Napocor's generation assets, it was reported in 2001 that three Malaysian power companies have been invited to bid. The three Malaysian companies are Tenaga Nasional Bhd, YTL Power Generation and Powertek Bhd. Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo conveyed the invitation during her visit to Malaysia in August 2001.
posted by philpower @ 4:38 PM,
