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Five groups make shortlist for acquisition of geothermal assets of Chevron

Five groups make shortlist for acquisition of geothermal assets of Chevron Makban geothermal power plant, Philippines (source: ThinkGeoEnergy, creative commons)
Alexander Richter 14 Nov 2016

Five groups have been shortlisted in the race to acquire Chevron's geothermal assets in Indonesia and the Philippines, with Japanese players and their Indonesian and Philippines-based partners.

There is a continued uncertainty about the exact number of companies shortlisted for the sale of the geothermal energy assets of Chevron on Indonesia and the Philppines.

We have reported before currently shortlisted companies, as well as companies that stepped out of the bidding process.

Now local news report that there are three groups from the Philippines that made the shortlist for the acquisition of Chevron’s geothermal assets.

In the Philippines, the assets include the steam field of Tiwi Makban and some geothermal power plants in Indonesia.

The companies now shortlisted are EDC in partnership with Japanese firms Mitsui and Kyushu, Aboitiz Group with Japanese Marubeni and Ayala Group with another Japanese partner, as well as two foreign groups.

The news are a bit confusing, and we assume that earlier lists we represented did not represent partners to a group bid … so we updated the list of companies that are still in the running for those assets.

  • Marubeni Corporation & Aboitiz Group (Medco Energi could be part of this group)
  • Star Energy,
  • Mitsui & Co Ltd., EDC, Kyushu Electric
  • Medco Energi (see group around Marubeni and Aboitiz)
  • PT Pertamina
  • Ayala Group (could be bidding with Star Energy and Pertamina)

Previously we reported that PLN has withdrawn its bid and Enel decided not to bid at all. There were also two Chinese firms considering a bid, but have not continued.

According to EDC senior VP and CFO Nestor Vasav, there were seven groups that submitted bids but only five were shortlisted. The last bid was submitted by EDC October 31.

“There is an option to bid separately for the two assets but I think all the bidders actually submitted for both. Although that would not prevent Chevron from choosing the higher bid for Philippines assets and then also choosing the higher bid for the Indonesian assets. They can do that but it depends on their choice,” Vasay said.

EDC said that acquiring the Indonesian geothermal asset would be a good investment for the company to jumpstart a foreign foray.

“We already have an office in Indonesia and its our aspiration to go international. In Chile and Peru, our prospects there are still on hold because of the challenging economic conditions.  I guess we will always pursue this when the right opportunity comes,” he said.

“The Philippine asset is much smaller compared with  Indonesia. The Philippine asset is just a steam field that supplies the Aboitiz Power Tiwi Makban power plants,” Aboitiz Equity Ventures chief financial officer, Manuel Lozano recently explained.

At present, Chevron has a 40 percent interest in Philippine Geothermal Production Co. Inc., which develops and produces steam energy used by Aboitiz Power’s 747 MW Tiwi Makban geothermal power plants. At Indonesia, among the assets of the company are the Salak and Darajat steam fields with a capacity to generate up to 650 MW of electricity.

Source: Malaya Business Insight, Business World Online