State-owned Philippine National Oil Co. asked the camp of businessman Gregorio Araneta II to revise its offer for a planned energy city in Limay, Bataan, an executive said over the weekend.
PNOC president Reuben Lista said the company sent a letter to Araneta, who heads the Energy Oil and Gas Holdings Inc. after his previous proposal expired last, year.
Lista said PNOC was waiting for a new and better offer for the lease of PNOC’s Limay property.
“We invited him if he is still interested to offer us a better offer because his offer is not acceptable. It was not approved by the board then, so it expired already in 2016,” Lista said.
Lista said the previous offer was very low in terms of cost and PNOC last week sent a letter asking Araneta to come out with a better offer.
The entire PNOC property in Limay covers about 220 hectares but Araneta’s group wanted only about 90 hectares, which raised questions to the government on what would happen to the remaining 130 hectares.
“He [Araneta] wanted only 90 hectares which we could not give because what will happen to the 130 hectares that are not as good. We will lose value,” Lista said.
The executive said PNOC was now trying to develop the right side of the Lamo pier property in Limay.
He said other companies already expressed interest in the area especially after the memorandum of agreement with the Araneta group expired last year.
“If they will not respond immediately, then we have to entertain the rest,” Lista said.
Araneta chairs Helios Solar Energy Corp. which together with partner Soleq owns the 132.5-megawatt solar farm in Negros Occidental, the country’s biggest solar farm completed in March 2016 at a cost of P10 billion.