MANILA – Members of the  Malampaya consortium symbolically remitted a check worth $1.134 billion, the biggest proceeds from the group to date, to the government in a ceremony held in Malacañang Palace led by President Benigno Aquino, III recently.

Shell Philippines Exploration BV (45 percent), Chevron Malampaya LLC (45 percent), and Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration Corporation (PNOC-EC) (10 percent) operates the Malampaya gas to power project in Palawan.

The Malampaya natural gas project generated proceeds of $741.14 million in 2010.

The project is the largest and most significant industrial endeavor in the country.

Phase 1 of the project is considered as the single biggest investment in the country with an estimated capital outlay of about $4.5 billion.

The consortium has also recently committed to invest an additional $950 million to sustain the production levels of the natural gas of the project.

These include the drilling of additional wells (Malampaya Phase 2 for completion in 2013) and the installation of compression capacity (Malampaya Phase 3 for completion in 2015).

The Philippines promotes the use of indigenous oil and gas resources such as the Malampaya project to cut down the country’s dependence on imported fuel for power generation.

Malampaya currently supplies around 42 percent of the energy requirements of Luzon through three natural gas power plants with a total capacity of 2,700 MW.

Government announced last year that it allotted some P8 billion fund from the Malampaya royalties to ensure security of energy-related projects, particularly those oil exploration projects located in far areas within the Philippine waters.*PNA

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