Brunei group eyes stake in Batangas pipeline project

KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia-Brunei oil conglomerate Mashhor Group of Companies (MGC) disclosed yesterday it is willing to take an equity participation in the proposed $80-million onshore Batangas to Manila natural gas pipeline project.

In an interview here during the 7th Annual Conference of the ASEAN Council on Petroleum (ASCOPE), MGC chairman Malai Haji Abdul Hamid Bin Haji Malai Mashhor said they would decide on the equity they are willing to take in the project early next year.

He said once they firm up their participation in the gas pipeline project, Mashhor Clough Sdn Bhd, a joint venture company between the Mashhor Group and Clough Engineering Ltd., will undertake it. Clough, has existing gas pipeline projects in Brunei and has annual revenues of about $600 million Australian dollars.

"We are committed to this project. We are just waiting for the outcome of the feasibility study. Once we get the details we will decide on the equity that we would be taking in," Mashhor said. Mashhor Clough has expertise in the installation of submarine pipelines, engineering construction, and installation hook-up of process piping.

Mashhor Group director Mike Alford said in a separate interview they would come up with the decision to invest once the feasibility study would conducted by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) is finished in the first quarter of 2002. "We are still waiting for some information. When we are convinced of the viability of the project then we will come in," Alford said.

The PNOC-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC), the upstream development subsidiary of the Philippine National Oil Co. has asked JETRO to conduct a thorough study on the proposed gas pipeline project.

"We will be basing our decision on the study made by JETRO. We do not want to make our own study that would be expensive. We will just wait for the results of the JETRO study," Alford said.

Last week, the Mashhor Group sent an investment mission to the Philippines to study the prospects of gas oil-related projects in the Philippines.

Aside from the gas pipeline, Mashhor is also eyeing other business opportunities in the Philippines, such as in the $600-million naphtha cracker plant and other non-oil ventures such, as waste management, pier repair, shipping and transport.

The investment mission is part of the group’s commitment to President Arroyo when sh made a state visit to Brunei last August. – Donnabelle Gatdula