PSALM awards P75.5-M supply contracts

MANILA, Philippines - Petron Corp., the country’s biggest oil refiner, and independent oil firm Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc. have bagged P75.5 million worth of contracts to supply the industrial diesel requirements of several power plants.

In an award notice, the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM), the government corporation tasked to privatize and manage the assets of National Power Corp. (Napocor), said Petron has won the industrial diesel oil supply contract for Power Barge 103, the Western Mindanao Power Corp. and the Southern Philippines Power Corp.

PSALM has been trying to auction PB 103, which is moored in Estancia, Iloilo.

The Zamboanga-based Western Mindanao Power Corp. (WMPC), meanwhile, isa partnership of among Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Conal Holdings Corp. the Alcantara Group and Tomen Power Singapore.

Southern Philippines Power Corp. (SPPC) in Saranggani province, on the other hand, is led by the Alcantara Group with other partners including the Aboitiz Group.

PSALM also awarded the industrial diesel oil requirements of PB 104 to Phoenix Petroleum. The barge is moored in Ilang, Davao City.

In separate notices, PSALM awarded to Petron the contract involving 390 kiloliters (kL) of industrial diesel oil for  PB 103, 70 kL for WMPC, and 90 kL for SPPC at a price amounting to P15 million, P3 million and P3.5 million, respectively.

On the other hand, PSALM awarded the 1,380-kL industrial diesel oil requisite of PB 104 to Phoenix Petroleum for P54 million.

PSALM has been trying to privatize PB101, 102, 103 and 104. It wants P B 101, 102 and 103, which are all in Iloilo, to be transferred and operated in Mindanao to address the prevailing power crunch in the island.

Each power barge can generate up to 32 megawatts, according to PSALM.

Mindanao is currently suffering from rotating outages of seven to 10 hours, depending on the area or province.