2 Lopez energy firms boost capex budgets

MANILA, Philippines—Energy Development Corp. is beefing up its investments this year to P32 billion, up from the P22 billion it initially announced, to fund the construction of priority power projects.

The planned spending for this year is 60 percent higher than the P20 billion that EDC spent for its capital expenditure program in 2012.

In a recent briefing, EDC chief finance officer Nestor H. Vasay explained that about P11 billion would be spent this year for the construction of the 87-megawatt wind farm in Burgos, Ilocos Norte.

The rest of the amount, or P22 billion, will be spread out for the activities of other geothermal projects that the company is pursuing, including the drilling of wells, rehabilitation and transfer of the 49-MW Northern Negros geothermal power plant (NNGP) to Nasulo, Negros Oriental, from its original site in Negros Occidental.

EDC is also targeting a 15-percent jump in revenues this year to P30 billion from P26 billion last year.

According to Vasay, growth drivers would include the new power supply contracts of EDC’s wholly owned subsidiary Green Core Geothermal Inc., the project company managing the 305-megawatt Palinpinon-Tongonan power plants, and the revenue contributions of the Bacon-Manito geothermal power plants, which were rehabilitated but were temporarily shut down Friday last week.

Another Lopez company, First Gen Corp., is betting big on natural gas prospects in the country as it further boosted its planned investments to $2.3 billion, or about P94 billion, for the construction of natural gas facilities over the next five to six years.

In a briefing last week, First Gen president Francis Giles Puno explained that the proposed investments would include the construction of the San Gabriel natural gas power plants that could generate an additional 1,300 megawatts for the Luzon grid by 2018 at the earliest, as well as a regasification facility.

All the facilities will be constructed within the same area in Batangas, where First Gen’s 1,000-MW Sta. Rita and 500-MW San Lorenzo natural gas-fired facilities are located.