EDC steps up Indon expansion

By Myrna M. Velasco – September 25, 2018, 10:00 PM
from Manila Bulletin

Soon-to-be delisted Energy Development Corporation (EDC) has been targeting to scale up on its geothermal investments in Indonesia – one of its long-time targeted offshore investment expansion terrain.

Richard B. Tantoco

EDC President and Chief Operating Officer Richard B. Tantoco disclosed that the company already secured its preliminary survey assignments plus exploration (PSPE) for the geothermal prospects it has been eyeing in Sumatra.

“We finally got awarded what they call in Indonesia the PSPE rights… the PSPE is the equivalent of the renewable energy service contract in the Philippines,” he said.

Tantoco nevertheless qualified that it’s still very early days to give assessment on the resource potential – like the targeted capacity that the steam field may eventually yield.

He noted that the company is still “doing road constructability surveys, so probably if all goes well, we will have drilling in 18-24 months.”

And when the resource merits commercial development, he indicated this early that they will be “open into tapping a partner” for the venture.

“We’re always open. By Indonesian law, we have to have 5.0-percent equity partner,” he explained, but for now, he stressed that its’ too early yet to be delving on this.

For the capacity off-take eventually of the power plant, Tantoco noted that it shall be underwritten by state-run Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), the state-run power utility of Indonesia.

Indonesia is the first Southeast Asian country that the Lopez majority-owned firm will be expanding on when it comes to investments – that’s aside from the ventures that it is also advancing in Latin America.

EDC is currently the country’s mammoth geothermal energy producer – and sustaining the Philippines’ status also as the second biggest player in the global sphere of geothermal energy.