Total eyes LNG investment in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines - French oil and gas giant Total S.A. is eyeing the Philippines for a possible liquefied natural gas (LNG) investment, a ranking Energy department official said.

Department of Energy (DOE) Undersecretary Donato U. Marcos said government is looking at the possibility of leading the construction of an LNG terminal but a number of companies have expressed intention to enter the sector.

“There are private parties that look at building LNG terminals. Total signified their intention to build one in the Philippines,” he said.

Officials of Total, he said, visited the Philippines last week and discussed their business in the country.

“They said they have 85 stations here and they plan to build an LNG terminal, station for importation,” Marcos said.

On its website, Total claimed it is second largest private operator in the global LNG industry, with production of more than 12 million metric tons in 2014.

Currently, it has partnerships with 10 liquefaction plants and four regasification terminals currently in operation worldwide. It also has a portfolio of 20 projects representing an additional 0.9 million barrels of oil equivalent per day scheduled to come on stream between now and 2019.

The Philippines is trying to launch the LNG sector due to an impending decline of supply for the Malampaya deep water gas-to-power project offshore Palawan.

Last year, the DOE issued a new policy mix, with both renewable energy (RE) and LNG having a 30-percent share each while the balance would be shared by the existing fuel sources in the country such as coal and diesel among others.

But in order to move forward with LNG investments, some power players noted government should lead LNG projects by building one or auctioning it off under public-private partnership (PPP) development.

In particular, the DOE is eyeing other options to implement the long-delayed P10.52-billion Batangas-Manila natural gas pipeline (BatMan 1), which was supposed to be auctioned under the Aquino administration flagship PPP program.

If Total pushes through with its plan for to build an LNG import facility, the Philippine power sector will greatly benefit from it, Marcos noted.

“It is a welcome development for the Philippines, especially our energy mix policy is going to that direction,” he said.