Yuchengco company eyes Tarlac solar plant expansion
By Myrna M. Velasco – December 3, 2018, 10:00 PM
from Manila Bulletin
As its renewable energy portfolio has been contributing significantly to its bottom line, the Yuchengco-led PetroSolar Corp. (PSC) announced that it will be expanding its solar farm in Tarlac City by 20 megawatts (MW).
The capacity increase to 70 MW from current installed of 50MW will be completed in the second quarter of 2019.
The company, in parallel, has indicated that its 36MW wind plant in Nabas, Aklan is up for expansion, adding that its corporate vehicle PetroWind Energy Inc. (PWEI) “is completing technical and financial feasibility studies for its planned 14MW Nabas-2 investment in Aklan in the midst of increasing electricity demand in the province.”
While traversing new phases of investments its parent firm, publicly-listed PetroEnergy Resources Corporation (PERC), reported a 27-percent income jump in the nine-month duration to $9.77 million from the year-ago level of $7.71 million. It also hiked by 40-percent the net income attributed to its equity holders.
The company noted that one major income driver had been the expansion unit of its Maibarara geothermal power facility which added 12 MW into its generation portfolio.
The Maibarara plant had 20 MW capacity in unit 1, and the capacity expansion had so far yielded a profitability rise.
That had been shored up by the 52-percent income climb registered by its 36MW Nabas wind plant in Aklan, which it mainly attributed “to strong winds in the third quarter.”
On its upstream petroleum operations, PERC emphasized that it posted a 30-percent increase in crude oil revenues “due to continuing rise in global crude oil prices.”
Upturn in financial performance in the company’s oil and gas exploration ventures is also continually anticipated as the Yuchengco-led firm and its partners had just been recently granted a 10-year extension on oil exploration and production venture in West Africa.
The company holds minority participating interest of 2.525-percent in the Etame Marin block in Gabon, West Africa. The Etame Marin consortium, which it is a part of, successfully executed the amendment to the Etame Marin Production Sharing Agreement for the petroleum block.
It effectively extended the consortium’s exclusive exploration rights to the three producing oil fields within the block – including Etame, Avouma/Tchibala and Ebouri fields.
The production extension will be for 10 years or until 2028, with “two additional five-year options,” said PERC.
The majority shareholders in the Etame Marin petroleum concession are European firm Addax Petroleum Etame Inc. with 33.90-percent; South Africa’s Sasol Gabon S.A. with 30-percent; and field operator US firm Vaalco Gabon S.A. with 33.575-percent equity.
The modified production sharing pact, PERC stated, “commits the consortium partners to undertake new drillings and technical studies to be completed within two years from the effectivity of the amendment.”
As assessed, “given past production from the block, the consortium is confident that the committed drilling program for two development wells and two appraisal wells will further enhance the field’s long-term commercial value.”
So far, the field already produced more than 100 million barrels of oil since the kick-off of its commercial production in 2002.
With its extended production life cycle in the concession, it was noted that such will then “offer opportunities for both the government of Gabon and the consortium-partners for additional investments, growth and revenues.”
