ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE, WORLD-CLASS RESULTS WITH THE FILIPINO WORKFORCE
Back in the days, as a university student, I was very idealistic and constantly asked myself how I could contribute towards nation-building and ensure that the Philippines will continue to be the same place that I’ve always loved.
Hence, after graduation, I knew that my first job should be geared towards this ideal. Then came an invite for a job interview from Shell. At first, I didn’t exactly know how to react as my only knowledge of the company at that time was that they sold gasoline, and without any appreciation of the life cycle of this product. Nevertheless, I obliged and went to the job interview with an open mind. One of the first persons who interviewed me was the managing director of Shell Philippines Exploration B.V. (SPEX), the operator of the Malampaya Project. I was totally blown away when he started explaining that they were building the Malampaya Project, which will be extracting natural gas offshore Palawan at over 800 meters water depth, processing the gas on an offshore platform, sending it onshore via a 500-kilometer pipeline prior to supplying it to three power plants (at that time) to provide over 3 MW of power, enough to provide 30 percent of the energy requirements of Luzon. Although a lot of what he said was alien to me at that time, I felt very excited not only because a project of such magnitude was being built for the first time in the Philippines, but also over the fact that right in front of me was a real opportunity to become part of it.
The early days of Malampaya saw us, a bunch of Filipinos, working alongside seasoned oil and gas professionals who were mostly expats. The working environment was truly multinational with nine out of 10 people working in the office being foreigners, bringing in deep technical knowledge in their respective fields. One could immediately sense the reasons why expats have been brought into the project and in the same manner, each of us immediately understood the roles that we had to play within this team. Yes, our foreign colleagues injected the steroid shots of technical know-how to ensure the timely delivery of the Malampaya project as promised. However, we knew that once the project started delivering gas, we will need to ensure a sustainable way of safely and reliably operating Malampaya for the next 20 years with a primarily local workforce and local support systems. After all, this project is for the Philippines and for the Filipino people.
The year 2000 was one of the most hectic years for the Malampaya project with the construction of the offshore platform in Singapore in full swing. The construction of the platform’s concrete gravity base structure in Subic Bay also at its peak, ramping up of construction of the Onshore Gas Plant in Batangas, and preparations were under way for laying of the gas export pipeline from Palawan through Mindoro and finally to Batangas. This also saw the first wave of our multi-skilled Filipino operators coming into the project, leaving behind their lucrative jobs abroad and choosing to serve the country. By the time the project started delivering gas in October 2001, it was apparent that the Filipino engineers were quickly picking up the technical expertise required to operate and maintain the Malampaya project, and gradually over time, the foreign technical experts were replaced by Filipinos. A true testament of how the oil and gas capability has matured in the country was the installation of the Depletion Compression Platform (DCP) alongside the original Malampaya Platform offshore Palawan in 2015. The DCP was designed and built locally, a stark contrast to the original Malampaya Platform which was constructed in Singapore. A clear message has been sent out to the international community that the Philippines is a serious contender for oil and gas projects worldwide.
Fast forward to 2019, only a couple of expats remain within the 180 people behind the safe and reliable operation of the Malampaya project. An ecosystem of contractor partners has also flourished around the project, where maximizing local content is highly encouraged as a sound business objective rather than a contractual obligation. Some good examples exist such as: (1) a 100-percent Filipino team for our maintenance services contract including their management team, which has been historically dominated by expats, (2) our helicopter services contract which started off with an all-expat technical crew in 2013 and now with almost half of the technical crew being Filipinos, and (3) our subsea services contracts with a 100-percent Filipino crew and almost half of the Remote Operated Vehicles (ROV) technical crew being Filipinos. The partnership with the government is as strong as ever with the Department of Energy (DOE) at the forefront of close collaboration in ensuring that there are no blockers towards the delivery of energy to the country. Furthermore, not directly related to the Malampaya Project, activities of the Manila offices of global Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractors are bustling with oil and gas projects — for example, the Penguins project, spearheaded by Shell UK.
Over the years, since the construction and start-up of the Malampaya project, through the countless changing of guard within the organization, the professionalism and passion remain to be at the highest levels as the dedicated men and women behind the Malampaya Project ensure that the nation continues to benefit from the country’s largest indigenous energy source as Philippines charts its way to progress. The highly specialized skills required to sustain such complex oil and gas operations have indeed been embedded organically and continue to be elevated within the Filipino workforce. We have shown and continue to show that the Filipino can truly compete on the world stage! The battle cry is and always will be,
The Malampaya developed and operated pursuant to Service Contract No. 38 (SC38) between the Republic of the Philippines, represented by the Department of Energy (DOE), and the consortium composed of SPEX,
Chevron Malampaya LLC and PNOC Exploration Corporation. It is a project of national significance which currently provides almost 30 percent of the electricity needs of Luzon and has directly and indirectly contributed billions of dollars of investment in for the country. The SC38 Consortium pays the Government 60 percent of the net proceeds from the Malampaya Project. In August 2018, the SC38 Consortium remitted to the Government at least $10 billion.