The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the change in the corporate name of the oil and gas investment arm of ACEN Corporation of the Ayala group to “ENEX Energy Corp” from ACE Enexor Inc.
The change in the company’s name had earlier obtained the approval of the board of directors of ACEN Corporation and presented to the shareholders of the firm during its annual stockholders’ meeting on April 25 this year.
“Stockholders representing at least two-thirds of the outstanding capital stock of the company voted to approve the change in the corporate name,” ACEN has reiterated.
The oil and gas investment unit of the Ayala group has been pursuing projects in the upstream segment of the petroleum sector as well as foray into power projects fed with imported liquefied natural gas (LNG).
On its targeted oil and gas exploration venture, its bid for "force majeure declaration" at its petroleum block in southwest Palawan basin under Service Contract (SC) 55 had been previously approved by the Department of Energy.
Because of that snag in its work program, the Ayala firm announced that the drilling of its appraisal well will have to be moved to April 2023.
The original drilling schedule at its block had been way back April 26, 2020; but because of the strike of the Covid-19 pandemic, work programs of most, if not all interest-holders in the upstream petroleum sector, have been suffering delays.
The company similarly planned its investment into LNG-fired power facility for a capacity that may reach up to 1,100 megawatts; but implementation details of that infrastructure buildup had not been fleshed out yet.
The LNG technology deployment plan will be carried out via corporate vehicle Batangas Clean Energy Inc. (BCE), which is its joint venture with Red Holdings B.V., a company affiliated with US firm Gen X Energy of investment management firm The Blackstone Group.
As disclosed early on, the project will be “an integrated liquefied natural gas and a combined cycle natural gas and hydrogen power plant,” – and the blueprint of the power component will be to align it as a ‘flexible’ capacity coupling to renewables.
If that business undertaking of the ENEX Energy-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.