Malampaya group remits P13B to national coffers

The consortium behind the Malampaya natural gas project has remitted to the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) roughly P13 billion in royalty payments for 2008, National Treasurer Roberto Tan said.

Tan said the amount was unexpected and had not been included in the government’s program revenues last year.

This development significantly boosts the state coffers, increasing the government’s chances of meeting or even surpassing its P75-billion budget deficit target for the year.

Last Dec. 23, the government also raised P21 billion from the sale of its 40-percent stake in Petron Corp., the country’s largest oil firm.

The Malampaya consortium, which operates the 2,700 megawatt deep water-to-gas project, consists of Shell Philippines Exploration B.V. (Spex) and Chevron Texaco, each holding a 45 percent stake in the project.

The Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp., the government’s exploration arm, holds the remaining 10 percent stake.

The government is strongly in favor of maintaining the royalty tax imposed on Malampaya even as the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has cited the royalty tax on the Malampaya project as one of the reasons for the high cost of power in the country.

Net government revenues from the Malampaya project amounted to P12.2 billion in 2007, up from P8.5 bilion in 2006, data from the Department of Energy showed.

Lopez-owned First Gas Corp., which operates the Sta.Rita and San Lorenzo natural gas plants in Batangas, utilizes the natural gas produced by the Malampaya project.

Meralco sources some of its power requirements from First Gas Corp.  It earlier said that if royalties to the government would be taken out, its generation costs would drop by at least P1.79 per kilowatt hour.

This, First Gen has said, would result in a lowering of the costs to consumers by P1 per kilowatt hour in the franchise area of Meralco.

But the Finance department stressed the collection of royalty or government share from natural gas and geothermal projects is provided for in the Constitution.