Phl, Japanese investors in talks on power projects

The Philippines is now in talks with potential Japanese investors in liquefied natural gas stations linked to a planned integrated facility project, the Department of Finance said Tuesday.

“We are already talking to Japanese businesses and the Japanese government to set up LNG receiving stations,” Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said in an emailed statement.

The Japanese investors will supply LNG receiving stations, Dominguez noted.

In September, Energy Undersecretary Felix Fuentebella cited the need to expand the country’s LNG capability to accommodate and import shipments as the Malampaya gas reserve is expected to be depleted within the next 10 years.

The Malampaya gas-topower facility fuels three gasfired power plants with a total generating capacity of 2,700 megawatts (MW) to provide 30 percent of the generation requirements of Luzon.

The DOF said it also plans to rehabilitate the AgusPulangi hydroelectric power plants in Mindanao, possibly funded by official development assistance (ODA) from China.

“For the medium-term, we are upgrading or rehabilitating the Agus power plants,” Dominguez noted.

“They are operating at roughly 60 percent of their capacities right now and we have sought financing — ODA financing — from China to implement the said power plants in Mindanao,” he said.

(GMA News Online)