Senator Pia Cayetano, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Power, on Friday pushed for the event of indigenous gasoline assets, citing the necessity for a “long- time period resolution” to nationwide vitality safety and reliability.
Cayetano made the assertion after visiting the Malampaya Shallow Water Platform which is 50 kilometers off the coast of Palawan with executives of Prime Infra and Prime Power.
“If you expertise this [visit] and also you see the sort of investments that goes into guaranteeing vitality safety and vitality reliability,” Cayetano mentioned on the go to.
“Reliability is you should have energy 24/7, safety is when you’ve entry, and that’s the place indigenous [gas] is available in,” Cayetano mentioned:
“When we’ve got our personal supply, that offers us extra safety. It’s quite simple,” she mentioned.
The Malampaya Deepwater Gasoline-to-Energy mission is the nation’s first and solely indigenous gasoline useful resource off the province of Palawan.
It provides about 20 % of Luzon’s electrical energy wants and has considerably contributed to the nation’s vitality independence since 2001.
“Our subsequent huge problem is exploration and guaranteeing vitality provide for the subsequent 15, 20 years,” Cayetano mentioned.
“As a result of our provide now’s based mostly on the planning that was performed 20 to 30 years in the past…It’s about planning long-term,” she mentioned.
“That’s what I hope I can carry to the dialogue and assist by means of policymaking,” Cayetano mentioned.
Prime Infra President and CEO Guillaume Lucci expressed appreciation to Cayetano for her go to, noting that having a member of the Senate witness the efforts of the Malampaya workforce to “maintain the lights on” underscores the essential significance of its work.
Lucci mentioned the go to coincided with Malampaya’s steady preparation for its Section 4 drilling program, which goals to drill and tie-in two new deepwater wells beginning 2025 and produce new gasoline by 2026.
“We stay dedicated to supporting the Division of Power’s initiatives to boost the event of the nation’s indigenous gasoline assets the concept being that gasoline is a pure transition gasoline because the Philippines strikes in the direction of renewable vitality,” mentioned Lucci.
Prime Power Managing Director and Basic Supervisor Donnabel Kuizon Cruz mentioned exploration and growth of a late-life gasoline discipline like Malampaya requires extraordinary feats of engineering, which Prime Power and the SC 38 Consortium are dedicated to delivering safely.
“The stress of the gasoline within the current reservoir goes down and the one technique to enhance the manufacturing once more is to drill new wells in the identical reservoir,” mentioned Cruz.
“We’re greater than able to do it,” she mentioned.
“We’re not simply rising gasoline manufacturing however extending the lifetime of the platform as properly via upkeep actions,” mentioned Cruz.