The Department of Energy plans to create an “energy city” in Batangas to be composed of liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities. This will serve as a back up plan to whatever may happen with the Malampaya deepwater-to-gas project off Palawan.

Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi said on the sidelines of a Senate hearing Tuesday that the DOE had already started studying the idea as the Malampaya project was now being hounded by several critical issues, namely, the extension of Service Contract No. 38, which will expire in 2024, depletion of gas reserves and the allegations that the consortium—composed of Shell Philippines Exploration BV, Chevron Malampaya LLC and PNOC Exploration Corp.—has been shortchanging the government by not paying the proper taxes since it started commercial operations in 2002.

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