Malampaya gas field was discovered by a consortium led by Shell. It was considered substantial enough to justify a big investment in a pipeline that delivered the natural gas from its location in deep offshore Palawan to Batangas where it was used to produce 20 percent of the electricity needed by Luzon. We did extensive exploration onshore and offshore but the most we got were pocket oil deposits in Nido, Cadlao, Matinloc.
Eventually, one of the major partners, Chevron, decided to bail out. Its interest was bought by Dennis Uy, a Duterte crony with no experience in the oil exploration business. Shell also wanted out shortly after and the same crony tried to gobble that too. But the crony’s appetite was not matched with financial resources so that eventually, a group led by Ricky Razon managed to buy the Shell interest.
Boomie said “there is no basis for the allegation from some quarters that there are skills and technology gaps in the current Malampaya upstream operations. After all, the same people running it during the time of Shell are also running it for Prime Energy, including the contractors providing third-party services. Furthermore, Prime Energy is likewise able to access specialized expertise worldwide if and when necessary.
“The country’s most urgent priority now is obviously to look for an indigenous replacement for the depleting Malampaya, which requires exploration drilling that itself is costly and financially risky. I believe we should all be thankful that Mr. Razon is willing to go into this risky business which others fear to tread.”
So, it isn’t likely that Razon will go to all the trouble and expense if he is not serious in maximizing all the resources that could be extracted from Malampaya. He took on a big risk that PNOC-EC couldn’t have.Beautycon 2024: Highlights, spotted celebs, top brands from the beauty event of the yearUS Powerball jackpot spiked to $975 million and you can join from the Philippines