The board of directors of ACE Enexor Inc., the oil and gas unit of the Ayala group, has authorized the company to secure funds for its planned shares subscription into the amalgamated Batangas Clean Energy Inc. (BCE) power project and liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facility.
Alongside the targeted loan acquisition, the board had also green-lighted the appointment of Rolando “Don” J. Paulino as director and President of ACE Enexor, replacing Raymundo A. Reyes who will bow out from his post effective Jan. 1, 2022.
Paulino served as Managing Director of Shell Philippines Exploration B.V. (SPEX), the operating company of the country’s multi-billion Malampaya gas field project.
On the Ayala firm’s propounded tie-up for BCE projects with Red Holdings B.V., which is a company affiliated with US firm Gen X Energy of investment management firm The Blackstone Group, the proposed deal will be of a 50:50 equity structure.
The go-signal given by the ACE Enexor Board entailed that AC Energy, the power generation business arm of the Ayala group, will first extend a short-term loan amount of P150 million “to fund the initial subscription by the company to shares in Batangas Clean Energy Inc.”
Subsequently, the ACE Enexor board “authorized the company to secure bank loans in an aggregate amount of up to P150 million to be guaranteed by ACEN subject to the payment of a guarantee fee.”
The Ayala firm similarly qualified that its joint venture deal with Red Holdings B.V. will be “an integrated liquefied natural gas and a combined cycle natural gas and hydrogen power plant,” – the blueprint of the power component of which sets capacity installation of 1,100 megawatts.
If that business undertaking of the ACE Enexor-Red Holdings tandem will push through, their proposed LNG terminal will be one of the many gas import facilities already being developed in the country – with the first two serious LNG terminal projects expected to be reaching commercial operations next year.
The Ayala group is heavily investing in renewable energy (RE) capacities; and gas is seen as the best complement to plug the intermittency of such technology installations.
Apart from its foray into LNG project developments, ACE Enexor is similarly pursuing oil and gas exploration ventures – including targeted re-entry into its petroleum block along offshore West Palawan basin.