By Myrna M. Velasco Shell Philippines Exploration B.V. is dispatching personnel on rotation to guarantee the continued operations of the Malampaya gas-to-power facility, which is the fuel source for 3,211 megawatts of electric generating facilities in the country. As noted by SPEX Managing Director and General Manager Don Paulino, the company has “taken measures to ensure that we can keep the offshore platform and the onshore gas plant staffed even with the current, difficult circumstances.” SPEX, which is the operator of the country’s only commercial gas field, emphasized that its “engineers, operators and maintenance crew are still being regularly rotated and flown offshore to the platform.” Alongside such enforced working condition, Shell indicated that “stringent measures are in place to look after the health and well-being of our workforce.” To that end, Shell qualified that it has been instituting “screening of workers and implementing specific COVID-19 protocols for hygiene and social distancing measures offshore, as well as medical evaluation.” The gas output of the Malampaya field is fed to five power plants that have been providing roughly 30-percent of the electricity needs of Luzon, the country’s biggest power grid. Cesar G. Romero, president and CEO of Shell Philippines, said “we need power to keep the hospitals running, sustain the operation of pharmacies, banks, groceries and other vital services.” And for the Filipinos locked up in their homes to help in the goal of flattening the curve in the feared spread of the fatal coronavirus, vital energy installations such as the Malampaya gas production facility had also been powering virtual connectivity of families and friends through the use of the internet; and at the same time, they provide lights and other necessities such as food refrigeration, or even cooking for households. Romero stressed “we will continue to power the nation,” with him emphasizing that their company will be there for the Filipinos “as we constantly navigate the challenges of the ongoing enhanced community quarantine.” The Department of Energy (DOE) previously apprised media that it helped SPEX address its operational predicaments, mainly those relating to “access restriction of critical operational and engineering staff and con¬tractors, including vehicles used for transport purposes in the National Capital Region.” The other concerns delved with the continuation of operations of supply base in Batangas port; the marine supply vessels and other vessels that berth in Palawan and Batangas; as well as the need for unhindered crew change cycles of offshore personnel underpinning operations at the Malampaya platform. The energy department said it also sought arrangements with relevant local government units “to exempt the delivery of goods and the movement of SPEX’s personnel from the lockdown, given the major role of Malampaya in providing power supply to the Luzon grid.”