Petroenergy plans stock rights offering to finance RE project

MANILA, Philippines - Oil exploration firm Petroenergy Resources Corp. will undertake a stock rights offering to raise funds for its entry into renewable energy.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the company said in relation to the stock rights issue, it will also incorporate a wholly-owned subsidiary to undertake its renewable energy projects.

The new subsidiary will be capitalized at P200 million.

The company said it will disclose the details of the offer and the amount of funds to be raised as soon as possible.

The board of Petroenergy also approved that commissioning of RCBC Capital Corp. to underwrite the stock offer.

The firm also informed the PSE that its board declared a 20-percent cash dividends, or 20 centavos per share, amounting to P27.4 million to stockholders of record as of March 15, 2010 and payable on April 5, 2010.

Recently, Petroenergy has been aggressively engaging in biddings by the Department of Energy, particularly in renewable energy developments.

It was recently awarded a geothermal service contract for the Maibarara geothermal field in Mt. Makiling. Petroenergy submitted its winning bid for Maibarara during the latest Philippine Energy Contracting Round (PECR) launched by the DOE last October.

The company committed the development of an integrated steamfield and power plant that targets the commissioning of the first 20 megawatts geothermal power plant by 2013. 

For the first two years of the contract, Petroenergy budgeted $18 million for a program aimed at rehabilitating existing wells, drilling new wells and updating the resource capacity of the field.

With the acquisition of the Maibarara geothermal service contract, Petroenergy’s expansion into renewable energy continues following the award last year of two wind energy service contracts in Sual, Pangasinan and Nabas, Aklan.

These renewable energy projects are envisioned to provide long-term revenues and growth for the company while its core petroleum project in offshore Gabon in Africa as well as oil projects in the Philippines, will sustain the company in the near- and medium term.