Coal firm earmarks P120-M capex

The Philippine National Oil Co. Coal Corp. (PNOC-CC), the wholly-owned coal subsidiary of state-run PNOC, will earmark some P120 million for its capital expenditure program for 2002, PNOC-CC president Florante Navarro said yesterday.

In a press conference, Navarro said the bulk of the programmed expenses next year would be for the investment on exploration projects such as Cotabato Coal prospect (P13 million) and Surigao Integrated Coal project (P10 million). Another P3.5 million would be used for its Lumbog coal project.

The P120-million overall capital expenditure program, which will be sourced internally, is much higher than the P2.9-million capex programmed for this year.

For operating and capital expenses, he said, they would allocate P5.8 million and P86 million, respectively.

Of the P5.8-million capital expense, P2 million will go to the expansion of the coal briquette project in Batangas.

Navarro said the expansion of the briquette plant would enable them to double the capacity to 14 million pieces of briquettes per year in the second quarter of 2002 from the current capacity of only seven million.

Launched several years ago, the PNOC-CC’s briquette project (available in the market with trademark "Grilla Brick") is slowly gaining a market today.

"We have actually started selling this product six years ago but it is now that the market recognized its use. This is why we have decided to invest to expand our briquette plant," he said.

Navarro said they decided to intensify the promotion and marketing of the briquette not only to promote use of cleaner coal but also help improve their financial performance. – Donnabelle Gatdula