PNOC EC Earns Gross Revenue of P10.4 Billion in 2011

The state-owned PNOC Exploration Corporation (PNOC-EC) earned a gross revenue of P10.4 billion in 2011, up by 14 percent over the gross revenue of P8.82 billion earned in 2010.

This was disclosed by PNOC EC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mel Lopez Jr. on the occasion of the 36th founding anniversary yesterday of the corporation, the upstream oil, gas and coal subsidiary of the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC).

Because of significantly higher revenues, Lopez said, PNOC EC posted a net income of P3.01 billion in 2011, greater by P538 million or a hefty 22 percent over the net income of P2.48 billion in 2010. Net income represented 30 percent of total revenue in 2011. Consequently, the earnings per share went up to P1.51 from P1.23 in 2010.

Lopez said that the “unprecedented increase in income enabled PNOC EC to declare its biggest dividend of P5.01 billion in its 36 years of existence.” Of the amount, P4.997 billion was remitted to the national treasury as share of the national government to meet its budgetary requirements. The remaining P10 million was distributed to its public shareholders.

According to Lopez, this placed PNOC EC as the third largest profit remittance contributor to the national government among Government Owned or –Controlled Corporations (GOCCs). The other two highest contributors are the Development Bank of the Philippines and the Land Bank of the Philippines.

Furthermore, PNOC EC has no outstanding loan obligations and has a positive cash balance of P1.85 billion. “Hence, we can proudly say that PNOC EC is one of the most stable and profitable of GOCCs,” Lopez stressed.

Lopez also disclosed that the PNOC EC board of directors has approved a long-range plan from 2012 to 2016 for the further exploration, exploitation, development and marketing of oil, gas and coal deposits in the Philippines at an estimated P20 billion investment cost. This includes the establishment of more power plants to produce electricity and thus boost the electricity supply for the entire Philippines.

PNOC EC Director Neil Tupas Sr., who was guest speaker at the PNOC EC anniversary rites, expressed confidence that through its various exploration projects for oil, gas and coal resources, PNOC EC would “bring our nation out of its status as an import-dependent country and join the ranks of the oil producing bloc. “

Tupas, a former provincial governor of Iloilo, also stressed that PNOC EC “will eventually become the national government’ secret weapon in propelling our national economy through energy development and sustainability.”

Aside from undertaking various other projects in coal, gas and oil exploration and development, PNOC EC currently holds a ten percent stake in the upstream component of the Malampaya Deepwater Gas-to-Power project, together with Shell Philippines Exploration B.Voperator, (45%) and Chevron Malmpaya LLC (45%). The Malampaya project provides the gas fuel requirements of its three power plant customers in Batangas, as well as the gas requirements of Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation in Tabangao, Batangas.

It has recently taken over the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) For Vehicle Project, in line with the existing Natural Gas for Vehicle Program for Public Transport (NGVPPT) of the Department of Energy. PNOC EC has appropriated P400 million for the project designed to provide compressed natural gas fuel to 1,000 passenger buses to bring down the cost of transportation.