Natural gas production slightly declines in 2019

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s natural gas production slightly declined last year amid the continued rise in power generation and industrial use. 

Latest data from the Department of Energy (DOE) showed that gas output reached 150,485 million standard cubic feet (MMcf) last year, up 2.5 percent year on year.

The decline comes a year after production peaked at 150,804 MMcf in 2018.

The agency said bulk or 146,365 MMcf of the total consumption was used in power generation while 2,642 MMcf was for industrial use. 

Meanwhile, the transport sector did not record any usage for natural gas.

The DOE expected natural gas production to decrease last year due to the maintenance shutdown of the Malampaya gas project and maintenance activities of gas-fired power plants.

The latest natural gas production data brought the total output at 2.25 billion cubic feet (Bcf) since 2000.

On the other hand, consumption reached 2.16 million  Bcf, of which 2.125 million Bcf was used for power generation, 39,121 MMcf in the industrial sector, and 184 MMcf in the transport sector.

The Philippines started producing natural gas at the San Antonio gas field in 1995 until 2008.

Currently, the country’s main source of natural gas is the Malampaya gas field offshore Palawan.

Operating since 2001 under Service Contract 38, the Malampaya gas project supplies fuel to around 40 percent of gas-fired plants in Luzon with over 3,000 MW in capacity.

The Malampaya contract is expected to end in 2024, but supply from the gas field is projected to be depleted by early 2022 or latest by 2027.