Malampaya gas to start flowing by Oct — Pere

Energy Secretary Vicente Perez Jr. said yesterday the Camago-Malampaya natural gas offshore project in Palawan will soon start delivering fuel to the 250-megawatt power plant in Sta. Rita, Batangas.

Perez made this announcement at Malacañang yesterday after making a similar report to the Cabinet Oversight Committee on Internal Security chaired by Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo which is reviewing the possible recurrence of any crude oil supply crisis in the Philippines in the wake of another round of global tension due to the terrorist attacks in the United States.

The Energy Secretary also relayed this "bit of good news" yesterday to President Arroyo who was in Japan on a working visit.

Malampaya gas is now being extracted from the field into the platform and later this week, it should come to the pipeline, Perez said.

"We are able to fast-track, the commisioning of the Malampaya natural gas plant. And easily by Oct. 1, we could commission at least 250-MW from the Sta. Rita natural gas-plant in Batangas," he said.

Once commissioned, he said, the Sta. Rita power plant could run up to 1,000-MW within two months.

Once the Malampaya becomes operational, it was estimated that as much as 16 percent of the country’s total nationwide electricity supply can be generated by the year 2002.

Likewise, the Malampaya gas project would result to lessening of the country’s dependence on importation of crude oil by as much as $670 million in purchase of bunker/fuel oil used to generate power. — Marichu Villanueva