Philippines Plans Malampapa Outage

The Philippines Department of Energy (DOE) has announced that is preparing a scheduled maintenance shutdown of the country’s Malampaya natural gas platform on July 15 and 16, and also on September 23 and 24. 

Malampaya supplies three gas-fired power plants, providing 40% to 45% of power generation requirements for Luzon – the country’s main island, which also includes Manila, the capital with an estimated population of 20mn people. Estimates vary, but most experts claim that gas at the Shell-operated field will be depleted in less than ten years.

The DOE added that both scheduled maintenance periods fall on weekends, while around 500 megawatts will be taken out of supply from the Luzon power grid on July 15 and 16. For the September 23 and 24 maintenance, around 1,100 megawatts will be taken out of the Luzon power grid.

The DOE also assured the public that there will be enough electricity during the maintenance periods since they will be falling on the weekend when demand is lower. “We don’t have to worry about anything, because this is a synchronized move, meaning, it was timed with the planned maintenance outages of the affected plants,” said DOE Undersecretary Wimpy Fuentebella.

Amid the eventual depletion of gas reserves at the Malampaya field, the Philippines is now attracting interest from IOCs in building LNG receiving terminals in the country. Earlier this year, Australia listed Energy World Corporation (EWC) announced the arrival of LNG carrier Ocean Quest at the country's first LNG receiving terminal, the Pagbilao LNG terminal, in Quezon province near Manila.

Tim Daiss