TOKYO, Japan – Tokyo Gas, the biggest natural gas utility in Japan, on Friday expressed commitment to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to boost the energy requirement of the Philippines.
In his meeting with Tokyo Gas officials, led by its president and CEO Takashi Uchida, Marcos said the Philippine government is considering going into a mix of renewable energy and traditional sources of energy to meet the growing demand of industries and households according to Malacañang.
“We are encouraged that in view of Tokyo Gas that it is worth the investment then we feel that we are going down the right path for our country’s energy mix and we are grateful for that vote of confidence that you have shown by your investment in the future of the Philippine economy, the future, especially of our energy supply from liquefied natural gas,” Marcos told the officials during their meeting here.
According to Malacañang, LNG has been playing a large role in the Philippine energy mix since 2017.
“This was even before it was decided that LNG would create this large role in our energy mix because we are very much talking about the mix between renewables and traditional at the time,” Marcos said.
“But now we are here now and certainly that is the most critical part of our plans for the future,” he added.
Setting up the infrastructure for renewable energy projects would take time, he lamented.
“We are generally speaking of 6, 7 years so even if we begin tomorrow, we still have to work 6, 7 years and the question is what do we do in the meantime?” he said.
“We are examining the possibility…of course, take more traditional wind and solar power, geothermal, all of these. But it will take time to come into play because the infrastructure has to be put in place.
“That’s why we are doing all we can to find ways to further– to encourage extraction of LNG,” he explained.
In a related development, Japan’s biggest power generation firm—Japan’s Energy for a New Era—committed to providing a reliable supply of LNG.
Marcos held a separate meeting with JERA officials in Tokyo, where its president Satoshi Onoda announced that his company is working with Aboitiz to contribute LNG supply to Manila as a transition fuel.
“As I have mentioned before, we will be working on co-firing ammonia technology as well. Therefore, we would like to be able to provide this technology as well in a timely manner,” Onoda said.
“We would like to utilize the various technologies in order to contribute to the economic growth as well as decarbonization in the Philippines,” he added.
Marcos, on the other hand, stressed the need to explore other sources of clean renewable energy, citing the “critical situation” of global fuel supply.
“Like most countries, we are very much in the middle of the process of moving from the traditional to the renewables. Now the traditional renewables we all know… solar and wind. Now, there is hydroelectric, now there are some other new technologies coming in,” he said.
The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues to drive up the prices of oil and petroleum products around the world.