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| Malampaya
gas and oil project to help sustain RP's economic growth in
2002, says GMA |
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MEDIA
RELEASE
released
January 1, 2002, Philippines - Manila |
 
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The
year-round production of oil and gas from the Malampaya
project in Palawan is one of the factors that would help
sustain the country’s economic growth in 2002, according
to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
 In
her yearend report to the nation, the President said that
with gas production in Malampaya that started in the middle
of October, 2001 and oil production that kicked off in
December of the same year, the Philippines is now 52 percent
self-sufficient in its energy requirements.
Because of this development, the President said, "our
need for foreign oil and gas and petroleum products would be
lessened."
The President also said that with the Malampaya Deep Water
Gas to Power Project in place, "we will have more
protection, especially with the impending increase in the
price of oil."
 The
$5-billion Malampaya Deep Water Gas to Power project, which
the President inaugurated last Oct. 16, 2001, is the largest
and most important investment of its kind in the history of
the Philippines.
During the inauguration of the facility in Tabangao,
Batangas City, the President said the project marks the
beginning of a whole new industry that will provide clean
and environment-friendly fuel to Philippine industries.
The President said that with an expected $700 million in
yearly savings as a result of the natural gas project, the
country is expected to earn at least $13 million in
royalties within its 20-year period of operation.
The Malampaya project, which will span decades in its
entirety, is an example of the Macapagal-Arroyo
administration’s long-term view of the country’s
prospects and capabilities.
The inauguration of the project, held three and a half years
after the declaration of the commercial quantity of gas in
Malampaya in May 1998, marked the birth of the Philippines'
natural gas industry.
Prior to the launching of the Malampaya project, the country
was consuming up to $3 billion worth of imported fuel every
year.
The President said that the impact of the natural gas
project would be long and widely-felt far beyond the power
and energy sector itself in the daily lives of millions of
Filipinos.
"Many of those Filipinos may have never heard of
Malampaya and maybe never will, because they are far in the
hinterlands. But they will be reached and touched by the
benefits of natural gas," she said.
During the inauguration, the President also took the
opportunity to set forth the directions and concrete actions
of her administration in promoting natural gas.
In order to achieve the goal of enhancing natural gas
utilization, the President stressed that it shall be the
policy of her administration to promote activities in the
downstream sector by offering access for all land-based gas
pipeline networks to ensure the inflow of investments in
this area.
She disclosed that several Japanese, Filipino, European and
Malaysian companies have already signified their interest in
investing in a land-based gas pipeline network from Batangas
to Manila and eventually to Bataan. |
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