Aboitiz planning new drillings at Tiwi-Makban
Alexander Richter
17 Feb 2009
Aboitiz Power Corp. is preparing to drill more wells around the Tiwi-Makban geothermal field as soon as the facility is turned over to its wholly owned subsidiary AP Renewables Inc. as scheduled on May 25.
The following is a news piece from the Philippines. “Aboitiz Power Corp. is preparing to drill more wells around the Tiwi-Makban geothermal field as soon as the facility is turned over to its wholly owned subsidiary AP Renewables Inc. as scheduled on May 25.
AP Renewables chief financial officer Iker Aboitiz said the company will invest an additional US$140 million spread over four years to rehabilitate the geothermal facilities which were originally intended to produce 747 megawatts (MW) of power.
“As soon as the facility is turned over, we will implement an aggressive drilling program to draw more steam,” Aboitiz said. “The older the geothermal field, the higher is the probability of hitting steam—maybe even 90-percent probability,” the AP executive explained. The Tiwi-Makban fields have been in operation since the 1960s.
AP Renewables has identified at least 16 new well fields located in the Makban section of the facility, which has more potential and is closer to Metro Manila.
AP is set to pay the 40-percent downpayment for the facility, an equivalent of P8.4 billion by the turnover date on May 25. The rest of the bid is already under a 7-year government financing program, but Aboitiz said they are looking to refinance that portion with better rates through private lenders.
Although most of the production of geothermal fields had already been contracted to distribution utility Manila Electirc Co. several electric cooperatives and large private consumers, Aboitiz said they are looking at signing more bilateral contracts for the additional supply once the rehabilitation program is in place.
The Tiwi-Makban facility is the first foray of AP Renewables into geothermal energy. With the entry of the asset, AP’s total power generation output will be 44-percent geothermal, 33-percent hydro, 1- percent bunker-fired thermal plants and 8-percent coal.”
Source: Business Mirror, Philippines
