Two government agencies have granted separate approvals on the transfer of permits to the corporate vehicle that will implement the proposed 20-megawatt Maibarara geothermal facility in Laguna province.
The transfer of the Renewable Energy Service Contract has already been formally permitted by the Department of Energy; while the go-signal to re-assign the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) was given by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Effectively, the re-assignment of the permits had been from original project proponent PetroEnergy Resources Corporation (PERC) to the project’s corporate vehicle Maibarara Geothermal Inc. (MGI), which now counts Trans-Asia Oil and PNOC-Renewables Corporation as partners.
“Under the Deed (of Assignment) approved by the DoE, PERC guarantees the performance by MGI of the obligations under the RE contract,” PetroEnergy has stated in its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.
Additionally, it stressed that “all conditions stipulated in the ECC remain in force and become the responsibility of MGI.” The project will command an investment of P2.8 billion and is targeted to be on stream by 2013.
Moving forward with the project’s implementation, MGI indicated that it already commenced the well work-over at the project site with the spud-in of DESCO’s Rig 30 in Mai-6D well.
Two more work-over wells are scheduled for rehabilitation, based on the project sponsor’s drilling operations and that this may stretch over 1.5 months.
“The well work-over operations in Maibarara also signals the timely initiation of Sub-Phase 2 of the DoE-approved work program in Maibarara,” the company has noted.
It further pointed out that “discharge flow-tests of the wells to confirm their commerciality will follow the drilling operations.”
The proposed geothermal facility would be able to avail of the incentives set forth under the Renewable Energy Act.
Nevertheless, geothermal technology is not among those qualified by regulators to avail of the feed-in-tariff, since it is already considered a proven and mature RE technology
