Razon-led Prime Energy, operator of the depleting Malampaya gas field, said all contingency measures have been prepared during the facility’s two-week maintenance shutdown on February 4-18 this year.
In a statement, Prime Energy General Manager Sebastian Quiniones explained that the scheduled maintenance shutdown is a preventive maintenance activity being executed at regular intervals to ensure that the Malampaya project continues to produce safe and reliable energy to supply the grid and meet the power requirements of the country.
The company said the primary coverage of the scheduled maintenance work will be on the flare system, adding that this is “necessary to depressurize the whole gas plant from hydrocarbons.”
“In preparation for the SMS (scheduled maintenance shutdown), more than the usual number of activities is expected around the sites and host communities at barangays Tabangao, Ambulong, Libjo, San Isidro, and Malitam (TALIM) in Batangas,” Prime Energy stated.
It added that “there will be more contractors and workforce in the area, as well as more cargo movements at Batangas port.”
Prime Energy further noted it had scheduled meetings with the local government units in Batangas, the host community of the Malampaya’s gas landing facility, in collaboration with the Office of Batangas Governor Hermilando Mandanas; the Office of the City Mayor in Batangas; Bureau of Fire Protection; as well as the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management.
On top of that, series of briefings with barangay leaders of the fence-line communities had likewise been pursued, especially so since it is highly anticipated that the maintenance activities might trigger noise that may end up to be an annoyance of the nearby communities.
“In the previous SMS, a noise level test was conducted at least two to three days prior to the actual flaring to determine the noise level in the community. The same was also conducted during and after the flaring for the purpose of comparison,” Prime Energy stressed.
In the last Malampaya maintenance downtime in October 2021, it was laid down by former Malampaya operator Shell Philippines Exploration B.V. (SPEX) that the coverage of the repair works had been the replacement of the facility’s flare tip.
The flare tip is the technology at the end of the flare stack or flare boom that is designed to support entrainment of air into the flare, so it can improve burn efficiency of the gas being processed at the plant.
The other major scopes of the maintenance works then had been those on the platform’s offshore flare ignition package; offshore xBoost project scopes; heat exchanger gasket and bolt replacements.
There were also pressure vessel inspections; critical safety preventive maintenance tasks; and process control domain upgrades.
Since the maintenance activity then was carried out at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, a ‘work bubble’ had been instituted for the turnaround technical teams – including those on required quarantine measures at the time.
Similar to all scheduled Malampaya maintenance activities, Prime Energy reiterated that “the supply of gas will temporarily stop.” Hence, that warrants that the power plants relying on the gas field will need to shift to liquid fuel or condensate so that consumers would be continuously catered to on their electricity needs although that will come at higher rates to be reflected later on in their electric bills.