Japan trade giant seeks to supply natural gas to PH

MANILA, Philippines—The local unit of Marubeni Corp. has expressed interest in becoming a supplier of natural gas to the Philippines, once the government is able to put in place all the necessary infrastructure that will make such an undertaking feasible for the Japanese trading giant.

“The problem is that the Philippines doesn’t have any receiving facilities. Malampaya is providing gas to the (natural gas plants), but I heard Malampaya will expire and, maybe in the future, we will need to import natural gas from overseas,” said Takashi Ishigami, president and chief executive officer of Marubeni Philippines Corp.

Marubeni is now sourcing its natural gas from Qatar to supply facilities in Japan.

But according to Ishigami, the price of natural gas from Qatar is “very expensive.”

The company is now negotiating with the United States to secure natural gas from US suppliers, Ishigami said. Marubeni expects that once the local natural gas market matures, “the Philippines [can benefit] from cheaper prices [of natural gas] from the US.”

In the meantime, the focus of Marubeni Philippines is the $800-million expansion of the Pagbilao coal-fired power plant in Quezon.

This expansion, which is expected to be completed by 2016, will increase the capacity of the facility by another 400 megawatts from the existing 700 MW.

“We are planning to expand Pagbilao plant and now we are preparing procedures. If everything is okay, we will like to start the construction within this year,” Ishigami said.

The expansion is being undertaken by Team Energy, which is backed by Marubeni and another Japanese firm Tokyo Electric Power Co., as well as by Aboitiz Power Corp., which currently manages the contracted capacity of the Pagbilao plant.

Team Energy owns and operates the Pagbilao plant, along with the 1,200-MW Sual coal power facility in Pangasinan.

For the Sual facility, Ishigami revealed that studies and meetings with the San Miguel group—the independent power producer administrator (IPPA) for the said plant—are ongoing. But there are no immediate plans to expand the capacity due to certain grid restrictions, he added.

Also, Marubeni is interested in further increasing its stake in west zone concessionaire Maynilad Water Services Inc., following the $400-million acquisition deal last month, according to Ishigami.

Last month, Marubeni bought into Maynilad, and acquired a stake of 21.54 percent in DMCI-MPIC Water Co., the joint venture holding company that previously held 92.85 percent of shares in Maynilad.