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Prime Infrastructure plans new gas wells at

Philippines' Malampaya project ahead of IPO

PHILIPPINES PHILIPPINE holding company Prime Infra- there is further development, output is due to
structure Capital plans to sink more wells at the end by 2027.
The company is also country’s sole natural gas project for launch in Lucci said earlier this year that the “drop-
planning major solar 2026, and wants to develop other fields to main- dead” day to launch new wells at Malampaya was
power investments. tain production for longer, its CEO told Reuters the first quarter of 2026, but hopefully drilling
on March 15. could take place earlier.
Prime Infrastructure has a pipeline of other Prime Infrastructure is owned by Philip-
energy projects as well, Guillaume Lucci told pine billionaire Enrique Razon, best known as
the news agency, including an investment of no the CEO of Manila-listed port-handling giant
less than PHP200bn ($3.7bn) in solar power and International Container Terminal Services. The
battery energy storage systems. These commit- planned IPO, targeted to raise up to PHP28bn
ments have come as Prime Infrastructure pre- ($511mn), had originally been due to take place
pares to undergo an initial public offering (IPO) in October last year but was postponed because
later this year. of market volatility. The Philippines' stock mar-
“The first step is to continue extracting as ket index is down 1.5% so far in 2023, although
much gas as possible from the existing source. To it is outperforming some other indices in the
that end, we will be drilling new wells,” Lucci said. regions.
The company intends to bring on stream Beyond energy, Prime Infrastructure is also
additional fields within the existing Malampaya involved in water distribution and waste man-
concession and other areas. agement. “We certainly need the capital to sup-
Malampaya, situated off the coast of the Phil- port our projects but an IPO is only one of many
ippines’ Palawan province, started producing in ways to raise capital,” Lucci said.
2001 and supplies power stations that provide Terra Renewables, a division of the company,
around a fifth of the country’s electricity needs. intends to develop a 2,500-3,500-MW solar
Prime Infrastructure wants to obtain a 15-year power plant – the world’s largest – as long as a
extension of the contract governing the project supporting battery energy storage system can be
that is currently due to expire in 2024. Unless implemented. ™

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