The Energy Department said Friday the Malampaya gas field in northwest Palawan operated by Shell Philippines Exploration B.V. is restricting supply to natural gas-fired power plants to normalize pressure in the pipeline.
“The high level of coal-fired power plant outages in the past couple of months contributed to the continuous operations of natural gas-fired power plants, increasing demand for Malampaya gas,” the department said in a statement.
The situation has drastically reduced landing pressure in the 504-kilometer line pack from the off-shore gas supply facility in Palawan to the Batangas on-shore facility. The Malampaya gas supply restrictions have resulted in up to 520 megawatts of restricted capacity.
The Malampaya project supplies to natural gas to power plants in Batangas with a combined capacity of 3,000 MW.