Enrile’s cold reality

Juan Ponce Enrile, the President's Chief Legal Counsel, presented a valid point regarding the need for the Marcos administration to beef up energy security in anticipation of geopolitical conflicts.

As nations try to find their economic footing lost during the pandemic era, the search for sources of fuel becomes a frantic effort, particularly among fast-developing economies.

Enrile referenced the Russian invasion of Ukraine in which energy facilities are the main target of the occupation forces to break down the will of the Ukrainian population.

Russia was accused of "energy terrorism" for the invader's priority in knocking out power plants in its military offensive.

The fear got credence when energy market officials affirmed that half of the power generating facilities run on imported fuel and the inclination in the generation mix towards imports is growing.

Several power plants under development, including those of San Miguel Global Power which is now the country's biggest electricity producer, will run on imported liquefied natural gas.

A resource that is indigenous but which requires investments to further develop is the Malampaya natural gas field which is now being operated by a consortium led by Prime Infrastructure.

Prime Infra is now conducting studies for the rehabilitation of the field to extract the remaining known reserves which earlier studies showed may last seven years more.

Its previous operator, global giant Shell did not conduct further exploration in the area covered by the Malampaya service contract due to its global priority being directed to the Western hemisphere and some other profitable global businesses.

An exploration program has been drafted by the Udenna Group which earlier offered to buy the 45 percent operating interest of Shell but it was frustrated after Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration Corp. withheld its consent to the transaction.

As a 10 percent participant in the Malampaya consortium, PNOC-EC's approval is required for the transaction to push through.

Enrile said uncertainty in the energy supply should be avoided and the country should act now.

He recommended the assembling of an energy summit to put together the best contingency measure for an emergency.

"We might all of a sudden have a Ukraine-Russia situation in the West Philippine Sea, what will happen to us?" Enrile posited.

Based on industry figures about 50 percent of the generation mix comes from imported fuel.

Industry data showed the current generation pie at 4,434 gigawatt-hour or 57.6 percent of total fuel source from coal; 1,407 GWH or 18.3 percent from natural gas; 772 GWH or 10 percent from geothermal; and 582 GWH or 7.6 percent from hydroelectric plants.

Thus, the only reliable sources will be natural gas, geothermal and hydroelectric plants.

With huge untapped resources and the emergence of renewable energy technologies, the Philippines has the potential of becoming self-reliant in terms of energy supply.

All it needed, according to Enrile, is a realization that the need for energy security is urgent.