Malampaya deepwater project located in Northwest offshore of Palawan in the West Philippine Sea will be soon be acquired by Prime Infrastructure Capital Inc. which is owned by ports tycoon Enrique Razon Jr.
According to the Department of Energy, Malampaya supplies up to 20% of the total electricity requirement of Luzon and a vital part of the energy requirement of the largest island of the Philippines and help in the economic recovery.
This announcement was made by the Department of Energy as it found Prime Infra to be technically, financially, and legally qualified to acquire Shell Philippines Exploration B.V. (SPEX) 45-percent stake in the Malampaya gas project.
SPEX will now become a wholly owned subsidiary of Prime Infra which is set to happen on Nov. 1 but will continue to operate Service Contract (SC) 38 which covers the Malampaya project.
Prime Infra signed in July a share purchase agreement acquiring MEXP Holding Pte Ltd which is a unit of Udenna Corp. of Davao businessman Dennis Uy which was supposed to purchase SPEX’s 45-percent stake but the PNOC Exploration Corp. (PNOC EC) withheld its consent to the $460-million sale.
“We will contribute by doing all that can be done to produce as much gas as possible to sustain production in support of the power demand in Luzon,” Mr. Razon said in a statement.
In the meantime, the Shell group has underlined to the Department of Energy that it has decided to exit from upstream petroleum activities in the Philippines.
