Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) president, Reynaldo David, said that they have entered into an agreement with three foreign companies for the possibility of exploring renewable energy projects in the Philippines.
DBP has already announced before that they have a P50 Billion fund for Renewable Energy(RE) funding with which developers can tap for loans.
Read the rest of this entry »
The National Biofuels Board (NBB) authorized the Oil companies to import in bioethanol as the local supply cannot afford them to comply with the Philippine Biofuels Law of mixing 5% ethanol in the gasoline they sell at the pumps.
The Philippines will require 208 million liters of ethanol in 2009 in order to comply with the Biofuel Law. As of now there are only two companies in the Philippines producing bioethanol in commercial quantities. These are San Carlos Bioenergy Inc. and the Leyte Agri Corp. Both distilleries can produce only 19% of the 208 Million liter requirement of the Philippines.
Read the rest of this entry »
Moves by lawmakers and Department of Energy to revive the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant are causing environmentalists to rise up against their plans.
In Congress, Reps. Mark Cojuangco (son of San Miguel Corp Boss Danding Cojuangco) and Rep Juan Miguel Arroyo (Son of Philippine President Macapagal-Arroyo) have been pushing for its reopening citing that nuclear power is clean, safe and cheap energy. Last year, Sen. Miriam Santiago introduced a bill in the Senate that calls for the revival of the mothballed nuclear power plant. Cong. Cojuangco meanwhile authored House Bill 4631 which pushes the same thing in congress.
Read the rest of this entry »
The continuing saga of the Tamugan River row between Aboitiz’s Hedcor Inc and the Davao City Water District (DCWD) has the former calling a press conference to appeal to DCWD to pave the way for joint development of the area.
This river row sparked from Hedcor’s plans to setup a Hydro Electric Power plant in the area. DCWD blocked the plans by claiming prior approved rights over the river. The city mayor and city council tried to mediate but DCWD just wouldn’t budge saying that a hydro electric plant in the river would stem the flow of water to the area. Mayor Duterte has called for the courts to settle the dispute as mediation bogged down.
Read the rest of this entry »
In order to satisfy their creditors so as not to hamper their diversification plans, San Miguel Corp (SMC), will pre-pay some of their debts to the tune of $1.2 B.
This is so that they can sidestep a cap placed by some creditors, limiting to only a maximum of 10% of their capital which they can spend on none core business investments. Those none core businesses are their acquisition activities of energy assets such as majority share in Philippine Oil Refiner, Petron Corp and a huge block of energy distributor, MERALCO.
Read the rest of this entry »
Biofuel producer San Carlos Bioenergy Inc, has announced that they will shelf plans to increase production of their bioethanol due to the lack of long term contracts being offered by the oil companies for their products. What they will do instead with their funds is build a 15MW biomass power plant. The company already has an existing 8MW Biomass power plant running near their distillery.
The main culprit for this is the lack of credit being offered, since banks won’t lend to the biofuel producer without a long term contract from the oil companies to guarantee a sure market for their bioethanol. With this, biofuel producers are feeling the tight credit market brought about by the world wide credit crunch.
Read the rest of this entry »
