Enex eyes Meralco CSP for gas plant

MANILA, Philippines — ENEX Energy Corp., through its investee company Batangas Clean Energy (BCE), is keen on participating its combined cycle gas turbine project in Batangas in an upcoming competitive selection process (CSP) of power distributor Manila Electric Co.

ENEX chairman Eric Francia said BCE continues to advance the development of the 1,100-megawatt (MW) Batangas combined cycle power plant, and is awaiting a CSP in order to secure a customer offtake contract.

He said long term fuel supply is also being worked out.

“We always thrive in an environment with level playing field and transparency. We’re very supportive and very happy to participate in these open and competitive CSPs. In fact, we are looking forward to the next major ones. I understand that Meralco is in the process of preparing its next CSP bid,” Francia said.

“We have a joint venture, which is a 1,100-MW gas-fired plant that’s under development in Batangas. So that’s in very advanced stages of development, and we believe that it can participate in the upcoming CSP of Meralco, for instance,” he said.

BCE is the joint venture company developing the 1,100-MW combined cycle power plant that will   use natural gas and/or green hydrogen as its fuel to provide firm power to the grid to meet the country’s growing energy demand.

ENEX, which is majority owned by the Ayala group’s listed energy platform ACEN Corp., owns a 50-percent interest in BCE.

The other 50 percent is owned by Gen X Energy L.P., a portfolio company of Blackstone Inc., the world’s largest alternative asset manager.

“We hope that the BCE project will be able to contribute to the much needed capacity in the Luzon power grid,” Francia said.

With the country continuing to rely on energy imports such as coal and oil, Francia said the imminent development of liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals would enable the country to import natural gas soon.

“This will provide an opportunity to develop low carbon power generation through gas fired power plants, which will be an ideal transition technology to provide reliable power and complement intermittent renewables,” he said.

ENEX, through 69.35-percent owned subsidiary Palawan55 Exploration & Production Corp., also has a 75-percent interest in Service Contract (SC) 55 in offshore West Palawan.

In December last year, the SC 55 consortium requested from the Department of Energy a declaration of force majeure on the commitment to drill one deepwater well by April 2023 due to the geopolitical issues in the West Philippine Sea and in light of legal and regulatory developments in the upstream industry.

“To this end, the company has been working on derisking SC 55, our oil and gas exploration contract in the West Philippine Sea. Unfortunately, uncertainties on the geopolitical front have posed some setbacks,” Francia said.