Petron keen on selling Limay power plant anew

Contract signing From left. Petron SVP and CFO Emmanuel E. Eraña, general manager Lubin B. Nepomuceno, SMC Powergen general manager Elenita D. Go, and SMC Powergen director Ferdinand K. Constantino.

PETRON Corp. is looking to divest anew its 140-megawatt (MW) solid-fired power plant in Limay, Bataan.

In a statement on Tuesday, Petron said it signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with SMC Powergen Inc., to repurchase the power plant. SMC Powergen is a subsidiary of SMC Global Power Holdings Corp.

Under the MoU, SMC Global Power will conduct a preliminary review of the power plant and its operations over a six-month period to determine the feasibility of a possible acquisition.

The power plant supplies the power requirements of Petron’s 180,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Bataan.

Petron was the original owner of the power plant which was then only a 2×35 MW power plant. SMC Powergen first acquired the facility in 2013 and expanded its capacity to 140 MW in 2014. Petron reacquired the facility late 2016.

During the first half of the year, Petron saw its net income drop by 72 percent to P2.6 billion from P7.9 billion year-on-year as volumes were dragged by higher cost of fuel due to the tax reform law.

Consolidated revenues amounted to P254.8 billion, down 7 percent from a year earlier.