PNOC-EC nears deal to hire financial advisor for share sale

MANILA, Philippines - State-led Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC) said it is close to hiring a financial advisor for its public share sale.

“PNOC-EC is in the final stages of formally signing the contract for its financial advisor,” the company said in a disclosure to the stock exchange.

“Once signed, the financial advisor will conduct due diligence and proper valuation process on the company,” it added.

PNOC-EC has less than one percent public float in the Philippine Stock Exchange. Listed companies are required to set aside 10 percent of its shares for the public.

After the due diligence, PNOC-EC said it will sign a firm underwriting agreement prior to complying with the public float rule.

Meanwhile, PNOC-EC said it will sign three agreements as it spearheads 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 lead the natural gas vehicle program for public transport (NGVPPT).

“The three agreements will be for the transfer to PNOC-EC of the lone set of mother and daughter compressed natural gas (CNG) stations in Batangas in Laguna, which are owned by Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp.,” the company said.

The other two are “the assignment of gas sales contract with Malampaya consortium from Shell to PNOC-EC and for the agreement with bus operators.”

PNOC-EC said it has yet to determine the actual selling price of CNG for vehicles to the public.

The NGVPPT was formally created with the signing and implementation of Executive Order 290 in February 2004.

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 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.