Cusi says 2 LNG bids rejected by PNOC

By Alena Mae S. Flores – January 14, 2018 at 06:42 pm
from manilastandard.net

Philippine National Oil Co. rejected two unsolicited proposals out of the seven groups that expressed interest in teaming up with the government to build the country’s planned $2-billion liquefied natural gas facility.

“There are seven partners who submitted. I think they (PNOC) are on the third proposal. The first two they found it unacceptable so they are in the third proposal,” Energy Secretary and PNOC chairman Alfonso Cusi said.

The unsolicited proposals, submitted to PNOC’s technical working group, include those of Korea Electric Power Co., Lloyds Energy Group, China National Offshore Oil Corp., First Gen Corp., Energy World Corp., PT. Jaya Samudra Karunia and PT PGN LNG Indonesia/PT Bosowa Corporindo with local partner MOF Corp.

Sources said PNOC rejected the bids of Kepco and Lloyds Energy. Kepco was asked to resubmit a proposal but did not.

“There is a PNOC board meeting on (January)16… There is a proposal from ADB (Asian Development Bank) to do project advisory,” Cusi said.

PNOC earlier declared its interest to tap ADB as consultant for the LNG unsolicited proposal evaluation.

“The PNOC is currently evaluating the proposals. So if all will fail, we may have to go to bidding,” he said.

He said the two proposals were rejected because the two companies failed to meet certain requirements of PNOC.

“There are certain requirements like it must be holistic because we said this is for energy security of the country. And number two is it will serve for the country to become a hub,” Cusi said.

He said PNOC also had its own requirement such as monetizing or using the banked gas from the Malampaya gas field in northwest Palawan as equity.

“For DoE, it came out with the LNG rules, we are looking for energy security so whoever has interest to propose… So they will have to be on a race as competitor of PNOC and others,” Cusi said.