Udenna Completes Acquisition of Chevron’s Malampaya Stake

Philippines’ Udenna Corporation has closed the deal to acquire Chevron’s 45% stake in the offshore Malampaya gas field, local media reported March 11 citing a company statement.

Udenna Corporation, promoted by Dennis Uy, said its subsidiary, UC Malampaya Philippines, fully acquired shares of Chevron's subsidiary, Chevron Malampaya. The company did not provide financial details of the transaction, Manila Times reported. The deal was announced late last year.

Malampaya is operated by Shell Philippines Exploration, which has a 45% stake while the Philippine National Oil Company owns a 10% stake.

“We look forward to working with our joint venture partners, Shell and PNOC-EC, and Malampaya’s key stakeholders, including the Philippine department of energy, to ensure that Malampaya continues to play an important role in developing a sustainable clean energy business in the Philippines,” the newspaper quoted Uy saying. The Malampaya gas field is declining and gas supplies for the country’s power plants are looking ever less reliable.

Uy also owns Phoenix Petroleum, which is in a joint venture - Tanglawan Philippines LNG - with Chinese state Cnooc. Tanglawan had planned to develop an LNG import terminal in the Philippines. However, that project is now on hold.

In December last year, the joint venture requested the department of energy to put the project on hold in view of Udenna’s acquisition of Chevron’s stake in the Malampaya field. Tanglawan Philippine LNG had planned to start work on the 2.2mn mt/yr terminal last year, with commercial operations targeted to start by 2023. The new venture was also planning to develop a gas-fired power generation facility with up to 2 GW installed capacity.