LONDON, England — After losing out for so many years, the Philippines is finally back in the investment map of multinational oil giant Royal Dutch Shell plc with plans for capital outlay on liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities and a highly-probable conclusive push for its local subsidiary’s $3.0 billion refinery upgrade.

“We are interested to deliver LNG into the Philippines, like we are interested also in other countries in the Far East, such as Vietnam,” Shell Global Chief Executive Officer Peter Voser has divulged during a roundtable conference with select group of foreign journalists at the Grange St. Paul’s Hotel here, wherein he laid down his company’s $100 billion investment strategy for the next five years.

“Shell expects over $100 billion of net capital investment for 2011-2014, some $25-$27 per year, in line with previous guidance, to underpin the upstream growth profile and Shell’s downstream strategy,” he said.

For the Philippines, the proposed additional ventures would be on top of the earlier announced $1.0 billion upstream investment that the company will be pursuing along with partners for the phase 2 of its Malampaya deep water gas-to-power project – of which cash call is scheduled to start this year.

The gas supply, Mr. Voser said, will likely be coming from Australia or Qatar – the key markets which will be delivering the 7.9 million tonnes of LNG that the company would be setting on stream in the immediate term.

“I think the most logical place to get LNG from would be Australia, and there would also be some Middle Eastern possibilities like Qatar, so we’re working on all of them,” he emphasized.

The major driver that can win over the company’s final nod on investment for LNG regasification facilities in the Philippines would be the scale of contracts that they can corner to guarantee a firm market for the gas supply.

“We are in contact with Philippine companies and the government in order to see development where we can be involved in … but most important is, we can place long-term contracts for the regasification facilities,” Mr. Voser said, further noting that the investments could either be for floating or fixed LNG terminals depending on how the market’s needs would shape when the investment decision is finalized.

On the refinery upgrade, the chief executive of the Netherlands-headquartered oil giant pointed out that investment options are currently being weighed seriously, giving due consideration to meeting the higher fuel quality specifications (i.e. Euro IV fuels) which are due for enforcement by January 1, 2016.

The oil firm’s local subsidiary -- Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation -- has, for several times, updated the refinery upgrade investment plan. So far, number crunching keyed in prospective investment of $1.0 billion for simpler upgrade; and a higher-end $3.0 billion if compliance with higher fuel quality standards would be factored in.

As he hinted on the direction they will be taking, Mr. Voser somehow brushed off protracted speculations that the company may decide to cease its refining operations in the Philippines.

“I know nothing about closing it (the refinery), we are looking at that investment…we are now looking at the new specs (specifications) and that needs some upgrading and the investment,” he stressed.

For Euro IV fuel specifications, players in the Philippine downstream oil industry noted that the magnitude of investments needed by refiners could range from $500 million to $1.5 billion to turn their refining facilities into a more complex state; which will then be able to meet the prescribed product quality.

Euro IV fuel standards primarily targets to reduce the sulfur content in diesel to at least 50 parts per million.

The country entered Euro II specifications for fuel in 2008, yet even for that standard, problems already arose as to the readiness of vehicles to take on better quality of fuels, so that is the side that the government must also address prior to the 2016 implementation timeline for the policy.