They are among a slew of Asian and Pacific rim companies have expressed interest in investing in the Philippine energy sector.
Energy Secretary Vincent Perez said yesterday companies from Australia, China, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and the US are assessing investment opportunities in power generation, oil and gas exploration, as well as the privatization of state power utilities.
Perez told a press briefing yesterday that both firms submitted letters of interests for the $2 billion National Transmission Corp’s assets to the Department of Energy and to conduct due diligence on the assets for sale.
"With elections over and political uncertainty has been removed, they feel that they could renew investment interests," Perez said. He disclosed this news during his closing press conference on the recently concluded ASEAN + 3 Energy Ministers Meeting and the APEC on Energy meeting this week in Manila.
"We are now hopeful that this would translate to more concrete projects. We are glad that interest are coming back," Perez said. He said the two firms have started separate due diligence process.
The assets sale is expected to raise $4 billion to $5 billion to reduce a country’s ballooning buget deficit. The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities ManagementCorp. has earlier warned of heavy losses of about $1 billion for every year of delay in the privatization of the TRANSCO.
AES is a global power firm operating electric power generation and distribution businesses in 27 countries. It operates in four segments: contract generation, competitive supply, large utilities and growth distribution. Its generating assets include interests in 114 facilities over 38 gigawatts of capacity. Its electricity distribution networks sell approximately 86,500 gigawatt hours per year.
In Asia, the company has generating businesses in China, India. Kazakhstan, Oman and Pakistan.
In the meantime TransGrid is the owner, operator and manager of the high voltage electricity transmission system throughout New South Wales, Australia. It transmits electricity across NSW through 12, 016 kilometers of high voltage transmission lines. It also operates 76 substations and power station switchyards.
At the moment there are three interested proponents for TRANSCO including Singapore Power Ltd., which has already submitted a firm proposal, including a counter price offer, for the 25-year concession contract.
Earlier this week, Australia’s BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) together with USbased Unocal Corp. (UCL) and Amerada Hess Corp. (AHC) and other companies won exploration rights for natural gas and oil in southern Philippines.
Perez said Thailand’s PTT Exploration &Production PCL and Chinese Petroleum Corp. (CPC.YY) of Taiwan are also looking at oil and gas exploration opportunities in the Philippines.
He said CPC’s interest in the Philippines was sparked by the go signal it received from the Taiwan government to invest heavily in oil exploration projects around the region.
