San Pascual eyes Spex's natural gas

The Magellan Utilities Development Corp. (MUDC) has been assured by Shell Philippines Exploration BV (Spex) that it will honor its commitment to supply natural gas to the former's power plant despite unconfirmed reports that another generator is interested in acquiring MUDC's allocation.

MUDC is the power generation company of the F&J Prince Group. It is working to establish a 320-megawatt (MW) gas-fired power plant in Pinamucan, Batangas.

Reports indicate that the San Pascual Co-generation Co. (SPCC) is interested in tapping natural gas from Spex for its 300-MW power plant also in Batangas.

"I have spoken to Shell Exploration Philippines and they confirmed that it has the capacity to supply both MUDC and San Pascual with natural gas," said Robert Y. Cokeng, president and chief executive officer of the F&J Prince Group.

Spex has a commitment to feed natural gas to three Batangas-based power plants. These are: the 1,000-MW gas-fired Sta. Rita power plant, the 500-MW San Lorenzo plant, and the 1,200-MW Ilijan plant.

Estimates show that the Malampaya gas fields can generate 3,000-MW of electricity for 20 years. --