PNOC-EC pushes nat gas use in transport sector

MANILA, Philippines - State-led Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC) will lead the country’s push for the use of natural gas in the transport sector.

PNOC-EC, which is into indigenous oil, gas and coal exploration and production, said it has been tasked to spearhead the natural gas vehicle program for public transport (NGVPPT).

“PNOC-EC is ready, willing and dependable to take the lead for the natural gas vehicle program,” said PNOC-EC chairman and president Gemiliano Lopez Jr.

He added that the NGVPPT should make a big difference in transforming the public transport system in the country. The NGVPPT was formally created with the signing and implementation of Executive Order 290 in February 2004.

But the company has yet to specify its tasks as the leader in the NGVPPT.

Compressed natural gas (CNG) bus operators have been criticizing the government’s lack of effort to promote the utilization of natural gas in the transport sector which, according to them, could prevent fare hikes and at the same time help attain a cleaner environment.

PNOC-EC is set to sign three memoranda of agreement on April 11. Signatories to the memoranda include Energy Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. president Edgar O. Chua, Shell Philippines Exploration managing directors Sebastian C. Quiñones, Jr. and Jose Jerome Pascual III, and Chevron Malampaya Llc vice-president Kevin Lyon.

PNOC-EC, Shell and Chevron are partners in the Malampaya offshore exploration project in Palawan. The Malampaya field fuels three power plants with a combined capacity of 2,700 megawatts, equivalent to about 36 percent of Luzon‘s power generation requirements.

The Department of Energy earlier signed an agreement with Pilipinas Shell for a pilot CNG project for the transport sector. The test period, which started in 2008, was supposed to run for seven years and would have involved 200 CNG-run buses.

But the pilot test for CNG had encountered a number of technical problems. Based on the revised Philippine Energy Plan (2005-2014), the government had programmed 200 CNG buses for the Batangas-Manila route in 2006, which will be expanded to 2,000 CNG buses supported by 10 CNG refueling stations by 2007.

Lopez said that so far, natural gas vehicles are already used successfully in many other countries especially in the Asia Pacific region.

Last October, the Malampaya consortium agreed to provide fuel supply for 200 CNG-run buses.

The agreement will allow PNOC-EC, which is set to take over the Mamplasan CNG station, to source its natural gas requirement from the Malampaya deep water gas-to-power project in Northwest Palawan starting 2018. To date, the Mamplasan station in Laguna fuels around 40 CNG-run buses.