ENERGY WORLD CORPORATION Ltd (EWC), an independent energy company engaged in the production and sale of power and natural gas, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Hadar and Medzar Oil and Gas Corporation (HMOGC) for a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) and natural gas refinery plant on the island-municipality of Lugus in the southern Philippine province of Sulu.
EWC Executive Director Graham Elliott – representing his father Stewart Elliott, Chairman and CEO – signed the MOU with HMOGC President Hadar Hajiri during a recent ceremony witnessed by Mindanao Development Authority Chairman Manny Piñol and Lieutenant General Cirilito Sobejana, chief of the military’s Western Mindanao Command, and other government officials.
“We welcome this development and we are excited to see the building of the refinery plant in Lugus Island because this will surely have a great impact not only to the economy of the municipality, but the whole of Sulu and Mindanao,” Hajiri told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
“This refinery plant will largely benefit our people and our region and will surely put Lugus and Sulu to the industrial map. This is also our vision and this business venture will bring progress and development in Sulu and Mindanao,” he added.
EWC said it has discovered huge deposits of LNG in Lugus and this was also confirmed by Hajiri. “The natural gas deposits in Lugus are so huge that it would probably take at least 100 years to extract everything out,” he said.
Hajiri said the economic impact of the LNG project in Lugus will help solve the electricity problems in Sulu, one of 5 provinces under the Bangsamoro, and Mindanao because natural gas can power electricity plants in the region. He said the proposed site of the LNG refinery plant is the village of Parian Kayawan and would be called the “Lugus Island Petroleum Park.”
The refinery complex will also include an airport and a deep water jetty that can handle all sizes of LNG vessels.
Hajiri said they are very supportive of President Rodrigo Duterte’s call for local and foreign investors to put up businesses in BARMM. And also support BARMM Chief Minister Murad Ebrahim’s peace and development campaign to make the region an attractive investment destination because of its rich natural resources and friendly people.
Sobejana praised the refinery project, saying not only will it generate mass employment and power supply in the region, but also bring about peace and prosperity, particularly in Sulu and BARMM areas.
On its company profile, EWC said: “The growing demand for efficient and clean power generation in the Asia Pacific region presents us with opportunities, where we intend to selectively develop new power generation capacity fuelled by LNG and natural gas in locations where the ability to satisfy increasing local demand is restricted by the limited fuel supply and generation capacity currently in place.”
In the Philippines, EWC operates the country’s first ever LNG hub terminal on Pagbilao Island in the Quezon province, about 90 kilometers Southeast of Manila. It was certified in November 2018 as an energy project of national significance by the Department of Energy.
The hub terminal supports 650MW combined cycle gas-fired power plant, and expansion options for both EWC and third party gas clients. (Mindanao Examiner. With additional reporting from the Zamboanga Post.)
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