Several US firms are eyeing to supply the Philippines with liquefied natural gas (LNG) as the country seeks to update its gas market process.
The was made through Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi during his meeting in last week’s ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting in Singapore.
“They (American firms) are interested to supply LNG to the Philippines… so what I have been selling to them is the ‘gas hub concept’ that we are thinking for the country,” Cusi was quoted as saying in a Manila Bulletin report.
Cusi’s proposal for the “gas hub” is anchored on the Philippines being an ideal “intermediate destination” of LNG. He noted that ports like Subic can be used to ship LNG from the US to different Southeast Asian markets.
“I am actually pitching for the country – we’re already a transshipment point (so) they might want to consider using our terminals,” Cusi stressed.
Industry experts predicted that gas markets will continue to be well supplied due to the expected success of shale gas revolution in 2.0 in the US, sourcing from the Permian basin of which output is expected to double by year 2023.
The Permian petroleum basin is a sedimentary basin straddling part of Texas and southeastern part of New Mexico. It has planned roughly 41,000 new wells and $308 billion in upstream spending between 2018 and 2023 which will be help drive its output in the next five years.
The Permian basin is projected to more than compensate for the declining reserves from other gas producing fields.
US oil producers have always been vocal on its aim to providing LNG to Asian markets, which they considered a vital factor to growth in gas demand for both medium- to long-term projections.
For the Philippines, its gas market will be going through a very critical change of shifting its supply from indigenous to imported LNG as an alternative.