Shell withdraws from Philippine gas field development project

Recently, Shell announced that it has officially withdrawn from the development of Malapaya gas field, the only natural gas field in the Philippines. At present, all shares of SPEX, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shell, have been sold to Malanpaya Energy XP (MEXP), a subsidiary of Infrastructure Company led by Enrique Marathon, a Filipino businessman.

It is reported that MEXP owns 45% of the shares of the gas field due to the transaction, the subsidiary of the Philippine Udenna Corporation owns 45% of the shares, and the exploration subsidiary of the Philippine National Petroleum Corporation (PNOC), PNOC Exploration, owns 10% of the shares. The transaction acquisition amount is estimated at USD 170 million. In addition, the equity sale of Shell has been frozen in May 2021, but it will take some time to obtain the consent of Philippine National Petroleum Corporation and the approval of the government.