"Our natural gas industry is one of the industries that are attracting interest from different countries. Our meetings with several Korean firms indicated a very strong interest among them to carry out these vital projects," Perez said.
Among the South Korean firms are Korea Electric Power Corp. (Kepco) and Korea Gas Corp. (Kogas).
Kepco is the largest Korean investor in the Philippines through the operations of the $700-million Ilijan natural-gas power plant in Batangas. Kogas, on the other hand, owns the largest LNG terminal in the world with a storage capacity of 2.24 million cubic meters as of end 2001.
Perez, who headed a Philippine delegation that visited South Korea last week, met with the officials of the South Korean companies to further discuss their intention to put up the necessary infrastructure to develop the downstream natural gas industry.
According to Perez, President Arroyo has mandated the Department of Energy (DOE) to lead interested parties to form a consortium to undertake the development of the downstream natural gas sector by putting in place the backbone transmission and distribution pipelines and related infrastructure such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and refilling stations.
"Natural gas is considered as the fuel of the 21st century and ranks as the most environmentally-friendly fuel. The availability of a viable gas transport infrastructure, however, is critical to increase its utilization given that based on our projections the demand for natural gas will pick up in the next coming years," Perez said.
From 203.2 million standard cubic feet (MMSCF) of gas produced from the San Antonio field in Isabela in 1997, the country’s production jumped to 4,951.3 MMSCF in 2001.
At present, the Malampaya natural gas is being used to fuel three power plants with a combined capacity of 2,700 megawatts (MW).